e  Castlecourt 
Diamond 
Case 


/"I  \ 


m  Cieraldine  B 


onner 


THE    CASTLECOURT 
DIAMOND    CASE 


SHE  MADE  A   SORT  OF  GRASP  AT  THE  CASE 


[Page  30 


The    Castlecourt 
Diamond    Case 


BEING  A  COMPILATION  OF  THE  STATEMENTS 
MADE  BY  THE  VARIOUS  PARTICIPANTS  IN 
THIS  CURIOUS  CASE  NOW,  FOR  THE  FIRST 
TIME,  GIVEN  TO  THE  PUBLIC  ::  ::  :: 


By 
GERALDINE    BONNER 

Author  of  "Hard  Pan,"  "  The  Pioneers^'  etc. 
FRONTISPIECE    ILLUSTRATION 

BY 

HARRIE  F.  STONER-.   ;•« 


FUNK    &  WAGNALLS   COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
1906 


COPYRIGHT,   1905 

BY 
GERALDINE   BONNER 

[Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America} 
Published,  December,  1905 


CONTENTS 


Statement  of  Sophy  Jeffers,  lady's  maid 

to  the  Marchioness  of  Castlecourt . .       9 

Statement  of  Lilly  Bingham,  known  in 
England  as  Laura  Brice,  in  the 
United  States  as  Frances  Latimer, 
to  the  police  of  both  countries  as 
Laura  the  Lady,  besides  having  re 
cently  figured  as  a  housemaid  at 
Burridge's  Hotel,  London,  under 
the  alias  of  Sara  Dwight 47 

Statement  of  Cassius  P.  Kennedy,  for 
merly  of  Necropolis  City,  Ohio,  now 
Manager  of  the  London  Branch  of 
the  Colonial  Box,  Tub,  and  Cordage 
Company  (Ltd.)  of  Chicago  and  St. 

Louis 95 

5 


M13741. 


CONTENTS 

Statement  of  John  Burns  Gilsey,  private 
detective,  especially  engaged  on  the 
Castlecourt  diamond  case 127 

The  Statement  of  Daisy  K.  Fairweather 
Kennedy,  late  of  Necropolis  City, 
Ohio,  at  present  a  resident  of  15 
Farley  Street,  Knightsbridge,  Lon 
don 157 

Statement  of  Gladys,  Marchioness  of 
Castlecourt  .  ,  189 


Statement  of  Sophy  Jeffers,  lady's 
maid  to  the  Marchioness  of  Castle- 
court.  ::::::::::: 


Statement  of  Sophy  Jeffers,  lady's 
maid  to  the  Marchioness  of  Castle- 
court.  ::::::::::: 

I  HAD  been  in  Lady  Castlecourt's 
service  two  years  when  the  Castle- 
court  diamonds  were  stolen.  I  am 
not  going  to  give  an  account  of  how 
I  was  suspected  and  cleared.  That's 
not  the  part  of  the  story  I'm  here 
to  set  down.  It's  about  the  disap 
pearance  of  the  diamonds  that  I'm 
to  tell,  and  I'm  ready  to  do  it  to  the 
best  of  my  ability. 

We  were  in  London,  at  Bur- 
ridge's  Hotel,  for  the  season.  Lord 
Castlecourt's  town  house  at  Gros- 
vener  Gate  was  let  to  some  rich 
Americans,  and  for  two  years  now 
we  had  stayed  at  Burridge's.  It  was 
9 


THE  CASTLECOUET 

the  third  of  April  when  we  came  to 
town— my  lord,  my  lady,  Chawlmers 
(my  lord's  man),  and  myself.  The 
children  had  been  sent  to  my  lord's 
aunt,  Lady  Mary  Cranbury — she 
who's  unmarried,  and  lives  at  Cran 
bury  Castle,  near  Worcester. 

Lord  Castlecourt  didn't  like  going 
to  the  hotel  at  all.  Chawlmers  used 
to  tell  me  how  he'd  talk  sometimes. 
Chawlmers  has  been  with  my  lord 
ten  years,  and  was  born  on  the  es 
tate  of  Castlecourt  Marsh  Manor. 
But  my  lord  generally  did  what  my 
lady  wanted,  and  she  was  not  at  all 
partial  to  the  country.  She'd  say 
to  me — she  was  always  full  of  her 
jokes: 

"Yes,  it's  an  excellent  place,  the 
country — an  excellent  place  to  get 
away  from,  Jeffers.  And  the  farther 
10 


DIAMOND  CASE 

away  you  get  the  more  excellent  it 


seems." 


My  lady  had  been  born  in  Ireland, 
and  lived  there  till  she  was  a  woman 
grown.  It's  not  for  me  to  comment 
on  my  betters,  but  I've  heard  it  said 
she  didn't  have  a  decent  frock  to  her 
back  till  old  Lady  Bundy  took  her 
up  and  brought  her  to  London.  Her 
father  was  a  clergyman,  the  Rev. 
McCarren  Duffy,  of  County  Clare, 
and  they  do  say  he  hadn't  a  penny 
to  his  fortune,  and  that  my  lady  ran 
wild  in  cotton  frocks  and  with  holes 
in  her  stockings  till  Lady  Bundy  saw 
her.  I've  heard  tell  that  Lady  Bundy 
said  of  her  she'd  be  the  most  beauti 
ful  woman  in  London  since  the  Gun 
nings  (whoever  they  were),  and  just 
brought  her  up  to  town  and  fitted  her 
out  from  top  to  toe.  In  a  month  she 
11 


THE  CASTLECOUKT 

was  the  talk  of  the  season,  and  be 
fore  it  was  over  she  was  betrothed 
to  the  Marquis  of  Castlecourt,  who 
was  a  great  match  for  her. 

But  she  was  the  beggar  on  horse 
back  you  hear  people  talk  about. 
Lord  Castlecourt  wasn't  what  would 
be  called  a  millionaire,  but  he  gave 
her  more  in  a  month  than  she'd  had 
before  in  five  years,  and  she'd  spend 
it  all  and  want  more.  It  seemed  as 
•if  she  didn't  know  the  value  of 
money.  If  she'd  see  a  pretty  thing 
in  a  shop  she'd  buy  it,  and  if  she  had 
not  got  the  ready  money  they'd  give 
her  the  credit;  for,  being  the  Mar 
chioness  of  Castlecourt,  all  the  shop 
people  were  on  their  knees  to  her, 
they  were  that  anxious  to  get  her 
patronage.  Then  when  the  bills 
would  come  in  she  would  be  quite 
12 


DIAMOND  CASE 

surprised  and  wonder  how  she  had 
come  to  spend  so  much,  and  hide 
them  from  Lord  Castlecourt.  After 
ward  she'd  forget  all  about  them, 
even  where  she'd  put  them. 

Lord  Castlecourt  was  so  fond  of 
her  he'd  have  forgiven  her  anything. 
They'd  been  married  five  years  when 
I  entered  my  lady's  service,  and  he 
was  as  much  in  love  with  her  as  if 
he'd  been  married  but  a  month.  And 
I  don't  blame  him.  She  was  the 
prettiest  lady,  and  the  most  coaxing, 
I  ever  laid  eyes  on.  She  might  well 
be  Irish:  there  was  blarney  on  her 
tongue  for  all  the  world,  and  money 
ready  to  drop  off  the  ends  of  her 
fingers  into  any  palm  that  was  held 
out.  There  was  no  story  of  misfor 
tune  but  would  bring  the  tears-  to 
her  eyes  and  her  purse  to  her  hand: 
13 


THE  CASTLECOUET 

generous  and  soft  hearted  she  was 
to  every  creature  that  walked.  No 
one  could  be  angry  with  her  long. 
I've  seen  Lord  Castlecourt  begin  to 
scold  her,  and  end  by  laughing  at  her 
and  kissing  her.  Not  but  what  she 
respected  him  and  loved  him.  She 
did  both,  and  she  was  afraid  of  him 
too.  No  one  knew  better  than  my 
lady  when  it  was  time  to  stop  trifling 
with  my  lord  and  be  serious. 

It  was  Lord  Castlecourt 's  custom 
to  go  to  Paris  two  or  three  times 
every  year.  He  had  a  sister  married 
there  of  whom  he  was  very  fond, 
and  he  and  her  husband  would  go 
off  shooting  boars  to  a  place  with 
a  name  I  can't  remember.  My  lady 
was  always  happy  to  go  to  Paris. 
She'd  say  she  loved  it,  and  the  thea 
ters,  and  the  shops — tho  what  she 
14 


DIAMOND  CASE 

could  see  in  it  I  never  understood. 
A  dirty,  messy  city,  and  full  of  men 
ready  to  ogle  an  honest,  Christian 
woman,  as  if  she  was  what  half  the 
women  look  like  that  go  prancing 
along  the  streets.  My  lady  spent  a 
good  deal  of  her  time  at  the  dress 
makers,  and  she  and  I  were  forever 
going  up  to  top  stories  in  little,  silly 
lifts  that  go  up  of  themselves.  I'd  a 
great  deal  rather  have  walked  than 
trusted  myself  to  such  unsafe,  French 
contrivances — underhand,  dangerous 
things,  that  might  burst  at  any  mo 
ment,  /  say. 

The  year  before  the  time  I  am 
writing  of  we  went  to  Paris,  as  usual, 
in  March.  We  stopped  at  the  Bris 
tol,  and  stayed  one  month.  My  lady 
went  out  a  great  deal,  and  between- 
whiles  was,  as  usual,  at  what  they 
15 


THE  CASTLECOUET 

call  there  " couturieres' ,"  at  the  jew 
elers',  or  the  shops  on  the  Rue  de  la 
Paix.  She  also  bought  from  Bol- 
konsky,  the  furrier,  a  very  smart 
jacket  of  Eussian  sable  that  I'll  be 
bound  cost  a  pretty  penny.  When 
we  went  back  to  London  for  the 
season  her  beauty  and  her  costumes 
were  the  talk  of  the  town.  Old 
Lady  Bundy's  maid  told  me  that 
Lady  Bundy  went  about  saying: 
"And  but  for  me,  she'd  be  the  moth 
er  of  the  red-headed  larrykins  of  an 
Irish  squireen ! ' '  Which  didn  't  seem 
to  me  nice  talk  for  a  lady. 

We  spent  that  summer  at  Castle- 
court  Marsh  Manor  very  quietly,  as 
was  my  lord's  wish.  My  lady  did 
not  seem  in  as  good  spirits  as  usual, 
which  I  set  down  to  the  country  life 
that  she  always  said  bored  her.  Once 
16 


DIAMOND  CASE 

or  twice  she  told  me  that  she  felt  ill, 
which  I'd  never  known  her  to  say 
before,  and  one  day  in  the  late  sum 
mer  I  discoverd  her  in  tears.  She 
did  not  seem  to  be  herself  again 
till  we  went  to  Paris  in  September. 
Then  she  brightened  up,  and  was 
soon  in  higher  spirits  than  ever. 
She  was  on  the  go  continually — often 
would  go  out  for  lunch,  and  not  be 
back  till  it  was  time  to  dress  for 
dinner.  She  enjoyed  herself  in 
Paris  very  much,  she  told  me.  And 
I  think  she  did,  for  I  never  saw  her 
more  animated — almost  excited  with 
high  spirits  and  success. 

The  following  spring  we  left  Cas- 
tlecourt  Marsh  Manor,  and,  as  I  said 
before,  came  to  Burridge's  on  April 
the  third.  The  season  was  soon  in  full 
swing,  and  my  lady  was  going  out 
17 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

morning,  noon,  and  night.  There 
was  no  end  to  it,  and  I  was  worn 
out.  When  she  was  away  in  the 
afternoon  I'd  take  forty  winks  on 
the  sofa,  and  have  Sara  Dwight,  the 
housemaid  of  our  rooms,  bring  me 
a  cup  of  tea,  when  she'd  sometimes 
take  one  herself,  and  we'd  gossip  a 
bit  over  it. 

If  I'd  known  what  an  important 
person  Sara  Dwight  was  going  to 
turn  out  I'd  have  taken  more  notice 
of  her.  But,  unfortunately,  thieves 
don't  have  a  mark  on  their  brow  like 
Cain,  and  Sara  was  the  last  girl 
any  one  would  have  suspected  was 
dishonest.  All  that  I  ever  thought 
about  her  was  that  she  was  a  neat, 
civil-spoken  girl,  who  knew  her  bet 
ters  and  her  elders  when  she  saw 
them.  She  was  quick  on  her  feet, 
18 


DIAMOND  CASE 

modest  and  well  mannered  —  not 
what  you'd  call  good-looking:  too 
pale  and  small  for  my  taste,  and 
Chawlmers  quite  agreed  with  me. 
The  one  thing  I  noticed  about  her 
were  her  hands,  which  were  white 
and  fine  like  a  lady's.  Once  when  I 
asked  her  how  she  kept  them  so  well, 
she  laughed,  and  said,  not  having  a 
pretty  face,  she  tried  to  have  pretty 
hands. 

"  Because  a  girl  ought  to  have 
something  pretty  about  her,  oughtn't 
she,  Miss  Jeffers?"  she  said  to  me, 
quiet  and  respectful  as  could  be. 

I  answered,  as  I  thought  it  was 
my  duty,  that  beauty  was  only  skin 
deep,  and  if  your  character  was  hon 
est  your  face  would  take  care  of 
itself. 

19 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

She  looked  down  at  her  hands,  and 
smiled  a  little  and  said: 

"Yes,  I  suppose  that's  true,  Miss 
Jeffers.  I'll  try  to  remember  it. 
It's  what  every  girl  ought  to  feel, 
I'm  sure." 

Sara  Dwight  had  the  greatest  ad 
miration  for  Lady  Castlecourt. 
She'd  manage  to  be  standing  about 
in  doorways  and  on  the  stairs  when 
my  lady  passed  dowrn  to  go  to  din 
ner  and  to  the  opera.  Then  she'd 
come  back  and  tell  me  how  beautiful 
my  lady  was,  and  how  she  envied 
me  being  her  maid.  While  she  was 
talking  she'd  help  me  tidy  up  the 
room,  and  sometimes — because  she 
admired  my  lady  so — I'd  let  her  look 
at  the  new  clothes  from  Paris  as 
they  hung  in  the  wardrobe.  Sara 
would  gape  with  admiration  over 
20 


DIAMOND  CASE 

them.  She  spoke  a  little  about  my 
lady's  jewels,  but  not  much.  I'd 
have  suspected  that. 

It  was  in  the  fifth  week  after  we 
came  to  town — to  be  exact,  on  the 
afternoon  of  the  fourth  day  of  May — 
that  the  diamonds  were  stolen.  As 
I'd  been  so  badgered  and  questioned 
and  tormented  about  it,  I've  got  it 
all  as  clear  in  my  head  as  a  photo 
graph — just  how  it  was  and  just 
what  time  everything  happened. 

That  evening  my  lady  was  going 
to  dinner  at  the  Duke  of  Duxbury's. 
It  was  to  be  a  great  dinner — a  prince 
and  a  prime  minister,  and  I  don't 
know  what  all  besides.  My  lady  was 
to  wear  a  new  gown,  from  Paris  and 
the  diamonds.  She  told  me  when  she 
went  out  what  she  would  want  and 
when  she  would  be  back.  That  was 
21 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

at  four,  and  I  was  not  to  expect  her 
in  till  after  six. 

Some  time  before  that  I  got  her 
things  ready,  the  gown  laid  out,  and 
the  diamonds  on  the  dressing-table. 
They  were  kept  in  a  leather  case  of 
their  own,  and  then  put  in  a  des 
patch-box  that  shut  with  a  patent 
lock.  When  we  traveled  I  always 
carried  this  box — that  is,  when  my 
lady  used  it.  A  good  deal  of  the 
time  it  was  at  the  bankers'.  Lord 
Castlecourt  was  very  choice  about 
the  diamonds.  Some  of  them  had 
been  in  his  family  for  generations. 
The  way  they  were  set  now — in  a 
necklace  with  pendants,  the  larger 
stones  surrounded  by  smaller  ones — 
had  been  a  new  setting  made  for  his 
mother.  My  lady  wanted  them 
changed,  and  I  remember  that  Lord 
22 


DIAMOND  CASE 

Castleeourt  was  vexed  with  her,  and 
she  couldn't  pet  and  coax  him  back 
into  a  good  humor  for  some  days. 

One  of  the  last  things  that  I  did 
that  afternoon  while  arranging  the 
dressing-table  was  to  open  the  des 
patch-box  and  take  the  leather  case 
out.  Tho  it  was  May,  and  the  eve 
nings  were  very  long,  I  turned  on 
the  electric  lights,  and,  unclasping 
the  case,  looked  at  the  necklace. 

I  was  standing  this  way  when 
Chawlmers  comes  to  the  side  door 
of  the  room  (the  whole  suite  was 
connected  with  doors),  and  asks  me 
if  I  could  remember  the  number  of 
the  bootmakers  where  my  lady 
bought  her  riding-boots.  Some 
friend  of  Chawlmers  wanted  to  know 
the  address.  I  couldn't  at  first  re 
member  it,  and  I  was  standing  this 
23 


THE  CASTLECOUET 

way,  trying  to  recollect,  when  I 
heard  the  clock  strike  six.  I  told 
Chawlmers  I'd  get  it  for  him.  I  was 
certain  it  was  in  my  lady's  desk, 
and  I  put  the  case  down  on  the  bu 
reau,  and  Chawlmers  and  I  together 
went  into  the  sitting-room  (the  door 
open  between  us  and  my  lady's 
room)  and  looked  for  it.  We  found 
it  in  a  minute,  and  Chawlmers  was 
writing  it  down  in  his  pocket-book 
when  I  thought  I  heard  (so  light 
and  soft  you  could  hardly  say  you'd 
heard  anything)  a  rustle  like  a  wo 
man's  skirt  in  the  next  room.  For 
a  second  I  thought  it  was  my  lady, 
and  I  jumped,  for  I'd  no  business 
at  her  desk,  and  I  knew  she'd  be 
vexed  and  scold  me. 

Chawlmers   didn't   hear   a   thing, 
and  looked  at  me  astonished.    Then 
24 


DIAMOND  CASE 

I  ran  to  the  door  and  peeped  in. 
There  was  no  one  there,  and  I 
thought,  of  course,  I'd  been  mis 
taken. 

We  didn't  leave  the  room  directly, 
but  stood  by  the  desk  talking  for  a 
bit.  When  I  told  this  to  the  detect 
ives,  one  of  the  papers  said  it 
showed  "how  deceptive  even  the  best 
servants  were."  As  if  a  valet  and 
a  lady's  maid  couldn't  stop  for  a 
moment  of  talk!  Poor  things!  we 
work  hard  enough  most  of  the  time, 
I'm  sure.  And  that  we  weren't  long 
standing  there  idle  can  be  seen  from 
the  fact  that  I  heard  half -past  six 
strike.  I  was  for  urging  Chawlmers 
to  go  then — as  Lady  Castlecourt 
might  be  in  at  any  moment — but  he 
hung  about,  following  me  into  my 
lady's  room,  helping  me  draw  the 
25 


THE  CASTLECOTJRT 

curtains  and  turn  on  all  the  lights, 
for  my  lady  can't  bear  to  dress  by 
daylight. 

It  was  nearly  seven  o'clock  when 
we  heard  the  sound  of  her  skirts  in 
the  passage.  Chawlmers  slipped  off 
into  his  master's  rooms,  shutting 
the  door  quietly  behind  him.  My 
lady  was  looking  very  beautiful.  She 
had  on  a  blue  hat  trimmed  with  blue 
and  gray  hydrangeas,  and  under 
neath  it  her  hair  was  like  spun  gold, 
and  her  eyes  looked  soft  and  dark. 
It  never  seemed  to  tire  her  to  be  al 
ways  on  the  go.  But  I'd  thought 
lately  she'd  been  going  too  much, 
for  sometimes  she  was  pale,  and  once 
or  twice  I  thought  she  was  out  of 
spirits — the  way  she'd  been  in  the 
country  last  summer. 

She  seemed  so  to-night,  not  talk- 
26 


DIAMOND  CASE 

ing  as  much  as  usual.  There  were 
some  letters  for  her  on  the  corner 
of  the  dressing-table,  and  I  could 
see  her  face  in  the  glass  as  she  read 
them.  One  made  her  smile,  and  then 
she  sat  thinking  and  biting  her  lip, 
which  was  as  red  as  a  cherry.  She 
seemed  to  me  to  be  preoccupied. 
When  I  was  making  the  side  "ondu- 
lations"  of  her  hair — which  every 
body  knows  is  a  most  critical  oper 
ation — she  jerked  her  head,  and  said 
suddenly  she  wondered  how  the  chil 
dren  were.  I  never  before  knew  my 
lady  to  think  about  the  children 
when  her  hair  was  being  attended  to. 
She  was  sitting  in  front  of  the 
dressing-table,  her  toilet  complete, 
when  she  stretched  out  her  hand  to 
the  leather  case  of  the  diamonds.  I 
was  looking  at  the  reflection  in  the 
27 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

mirror,  thinking  that  she  was  as  per 
fect  as  I  could  make  her.  She,  too, 
had  been  looking  at  the  back  of  her 
head,  and  still  held  the  small  glass 
in  one  hand.  The  other  she  reached 
out  for  the  diamonds.  The  case  had 
a  catch  that  you  had  to  press,  and  I 
saw,  to  my  surprise,  that  she  raised 
the  lid  without  pressing  this.  Then 
she  gave  a  loud  exclamation.  There 
were  no  diamonds  there! 

She  turned  round  and  looked  at 
me,  and  said: 

"How  odd!  Where  are  they, 
Jeffers?" 

I  felt  suddenly  as  if  I  was  going 
to  fall  dead,  and  afterward,  when  my 
lady  stood  by  me  and  said  it  was 
nonsence  to  suspect  me,  one  of  the 
things  she  brought  up  as  a  proof  of 
my  innocence  was  the  color  I  turned 
28 


DIAMOND  CASE 

and  the  way  I  looked  at  that  mo 
ment. 

"Jeffers!"  she  said,  suddenly  ris 
ing  up  quick  out  of  her  chair.  And 
then,  without  my  saying  a  word,  she 
went  white  and  stood  staring  at  me. 

"My  lady,  my  lady,"  was  all  I 
could  falter  out,  "I  don't  know — I 
don't  know!" 

"Where  are  they,  Jeffers?  What's 
happened  to  them?" 

My  voice  was  all  husky  like  a  per 
son's  with  a  cold,  as  I  stammered: 

"They  were  in  the  case  an  hour 
ago." 

My  lady  caught  me  by  the  arm, 
and  her  fingers  gripped  tight  into 
my  flesh. 

"Don't  say  they're  stolen,  Jef 
fers!"  she  cried  out.  "Don't  tell  me 
that !  Lord  Castlecourt  would  never 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

forgive  me.  Hell  never  forgive 
me!  They're  worth  thousands  and 
thousands  of  pounds!  They  can't 
have  been  stolen!" 

She  spoke  so  loud  they  heard  her 
in  the  next  room,  and  Lord  Castle- 
court  came  in.  He  was  a  tall  gen 
tleman,  a  little  bald,  and  I  can  see 
him  now  in  his  black  clothes,  with 
the  white  of  his  shirt  bosom  gleam 
ing,  standing  in  the  doorway  looking 
at  her.  He  had  a  surprised  expres 
sion  on  his  face,  and  was  frowning  a 
little;  for  he  hated  anything  like 
loud  talking  or  a  scene. 

" What's  the  matter,  Gladys?"  he 
said.  "  You  're  making  such  a  noise 
I  heard  you  in  my  room.  Is  there 
a  fire?" 

She  made  a  sort  of  grasp  at  the 
case,  and  tried  to  hide  it.  Chawl- 
30 


DIAMOND  CASE 

mers  was  in  the  doorway  behind  my 
lord,  and  I  saw  him  staring  at  her 
and  trying  not  to.  He  told  me  after 
ward  she  was  as  white  as  paper. 

"The  diamonds,"  she  faltered  out 
— "your  diamonds — your  family's — 
your  mother's." 

Lord  Castlecourt  gave  a  start,  and 
seemed  to  stiffen.  He  did  not  move 
from  where  he  was,  but  stood  rigid, 
looking  at  her. 

"What's  the  matter  with  them?" 
he  said,  quick  and  quiet,  but  not  as 
if  he  was  calm. 

She  threw  the  case  she  had  been 
trying  to  hide  on  the  dressing-table. 
It  knocked  over  some  bottles,  and  lay 
there  open  and  empty.  My  lord 
sprang  at  it,  took  it  up,  and  shook  it. 

"Gone?"  he  said,  turning  to  my 
lady.    "Stolen,  do  you  mean?" 
31 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

"Yes — yes — yes,"  she  said,  like 
that — three  times;  and  then  she  fell 
back  in  the  chair  and  put  her  hands 
over  her  face. 

Lord  Castlecourt  turned  to  me. 

"What's  this  mean,  Jeffers? 
You've  had  charge  of  the  diamonds." 

I  told  him  all  I  knew  and  as  well  as 
I  could,  what  with  my  legs  trembling 
that  they'd  scarce  support  me,  and 
my  tongue  dry  as  a  piece  of  leather. 
When  I  got  toward  the  end,  my  lady 
interrupted  me,  crying  out: 

"Herbert,  it  isn't  my  fault,  it 
isn't!  Jeffers  will  tell  you  I've  tak 
en  good  care  of  them.  I've  not  been 
careless  or  forgetful  about  them,  as 
I  have  about  other  things.  I  have 
been  careful  of  them!  It  isn't  my 
fault,  and  you  mustn't  blame  me!" 

Lord  Castlecourt  made  a  sort  of 
32 


DIAMOND  CASE 

gesture  toward  her  to  be  still.  I 
could  see  it  meant  that.  He  kept 
the  case,  and,  going  to  the  door, 
locked  it. 

"How  long  have  you  been  in  these 
rooms?"  he  said,  turning  round  on 
me  with  the  key  in  his  hand. 

I  told  him,  trembling,  and  almost 
crying.  I  had  never  seen  my  lord 
look  so  terribly  stern.  I  don't  know 
whether  he  was  angry  or  not,  but  I 
was  afraid  of  him,  and  it  was  for 
the  first  time;  for  he'd  always  been 
a  kind  and  generous  master  to  me 
and  the  other  servants. 

"Oh,  my  lord,"  I  said,  feeling  sud 
denly  weighed  down  with  dread  and 
misery,  "you  surely  don't  think  I 
took  them?" 

"I'm  not  thinking  anything,"  he 
said.  "You  and  Chawlmers  are  to 
33 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

stay  in  this  room,  and  not  move  from 
it  till  you  get  my  orders.  I'll  send 
at  once  for  the  police. " 

My  lady  turned  round  in  her  chair 
and  looked  at  him. 

'  '  The  police  V '  she  said.  ' '  Oh,  Her 
bert,  wait  till  to-morrow!  You're 
not  even  sure  yet  that  they  are 
stolen." 

" Where  are  they,  then?"  he  says, 
quick  and  sharp.  "Jeffers  says  she 
saw  them  in  that  case  an  hour  ago. 
They  are  not  in  the  case  now.  Do 
either  you  or  she  know  where  they 
are?" 

I  was  down  on  my  knees,  picking 
up  the  bottles  that  had  been  knocked 
over  by  the  empty  jewel-case. 

"Not  I,  God  knows,"  I  said,  and 
I  began  to  cry. 

"The  matter  must  be  put  in  the 
34 


DIAMOND  CASE 

hands  of  the  police  at  once,"  my 
lord  said.  "I'll  have  the  hotel  police 
man  here  in  a  few  minutes,  and  the 
rooms  searched.  Jeffers  and  Chawl- 
mers  and  their  luggage  will  be 
searched  to-morrow." 

My  lady  gave  a  sort  of  gasp.  I 
was  close  to  her  feet,  and  I  heard 
her.  But,  for  myself,  I  just  broke 
down,  and,  kneeling  on  the  floor  with 
the  overturned  bottles  spilling  co 
logne  all  around  me,  cried  worse 
than  I've  done  since  I  was  in  short 
frocks. 

"Oh,  my  lady,  I  didn't  take  them! 
I  didn't!  You  know  I  didn't!"  I 
sobbed  out. 

My  lady  looked  very  miserable. 

"My  poor  Jeffers,"  she  said,  and 
put  her  hand  on  my  shoulder,  "I'm 
sure  you  didn't.  If  I'd  only  a  six- 
35 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

pence  in  the  world  I'd  stake  that  on 
your  honesty." 

Lord  Castlecourt  didn't  say  any 
thing.  He  went  to  the  bell  and 
pressed  it.  When  the  boy  answered 
it  he  gave  him  a  message  in  a  low 
tone,  and  it  didn't  seem  five  min 
utes  before  two  men  were  in  the 
room.  I  did  not  know  till  after 
ward  that  one  was  the  manager,  and 
the  other  the  hotel  policeman.  I 
stopped  my  crying  the  best  I  could, 
and  heard  my  lord  telling  them  that 
the  diamonds  were  gone,  and  that 
Chawlmers  and  I  had  been  the  only 
people  in  the  room  all  the  afternoon. 
Then  he  said  he  wanted  them  to 
communicate  at  once  with  Scotland 
Yard,  and  have  a  capable  detective 
sent  to  the  hotel. 

"Lady  Castlecourt  and  I  are  going 
36 


DIAMOND  CASE 

to  dinner, "  lie  said,  looking  at  Ms 
watch.  "We  will  have  to  leave,  at 
the  latest,  within  the  next  twenty 
minutes." 

Lady  Castlecourt  cried  out  at 
that: 

"Herbert,  I  don't  see  how  I  can 
go  to  that  dinner.  I  am  altogether 
too  upset,  and,  besides,  it  will  be  too 
late.  It's  eight  o'clock  now." 

"We  can  make  the  time  up  in  the 
carriage,"  my  lord  said;  and  he  went 
into  the  next  room  with  the  police 
man,  where  they  talked  together  in 
low  voices.  I  helped  my  lady  on 
with  her  cloak,  and  she  stood  wait 
ing,  her  eyebrows  drawn  together, 
looking  very  pale  and  worried. 
When  my  lord  came  back  he  said 
nothing,  only  nodded  to  my  lady 
37 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

that  he  was  ready,  and,  without  a 
word,  they  left  the  room. 

I  tried  to  tidy  the  bureau  and  pick 
up  the  bottles  as  well  as  I  could,  and 
every  time  I  looked  at  the  door  into 
the  sitting-room  I  saw  that  police 
man's  head  peering  round  the  door 
post  at  me. 

That  was  an  awful  night.  I  did 
not  know  it  till  afterward,  but  both 
Chawlmers  and  I  were  under  what 
they  call  " surveillance."  I  did  not 
know  either  that  Lord  Castlecourt 
had  told  the  policeman  he  believed  us 
to  be  innocent;  that  we  were  of  ex 
cellent  character,  and  nothing  but 
positive  proof  would  make  him  think 
either  of  us  guilty.  All  I  felt,  as  I 
tossed  about  in  bed,  was  that  I  was 
suspected,  and  would  be  arrested  and 
probably  put  in  jail.  Fifteen  years 
38 


DIAMOND  CASE 

of  honest  service  in  noble  families 
wouldn't  help  me  much  if  the  de 
tectives  took  it  into  their  heads  I 
was  guilty. 

The  next  morning  we  heard  about 
the  disappearance  of  Sara  Dwight, 
and  things  began  to  look  brighter. 
Sara  had  left  the  hotel  at  a  little 
after  seven  the  evening  before, 
speaking  to  no  one,  and  carrying  a 
small  portmanteau.  When  they 
came  to  examine  her  room  and  her 
box  they  found  a  jacket  and  skirt 
hanging  on  the  wall,  some  burnt 
papers  in  the  grate,  and  the  box 
almost  empty,  except  for  some  cheap 
cotton  underclothes  and  a  dirty  wad 
ded  quilt  put  in  to  fill  up.  Sara  had 
given  no  notice,  and  had  not  at  any 
time  told  any  of  her  fellow  servants 
39 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

that   she  was  dissatisfied  with  her 
place  or  wanted  to  leave. 

That  morning  Mr.  Brison,  the 
Scotland  Yard  detective,  had  us  up 
in  the  sitting-room  asking  us  ques 
tions  till  I  was  fair  muddled,  and 
didn't  know  truth  from  lies.  Lord 
Castlecourt  and  my  lady  were  both 
present,  and  Mr.  Brison  was  for 
ever  politely  asking  my  lady  ques 
tions  till  she  got  quite  angry  with 
him,  and  said  she  wasn't  at  all 
sure  the  diamonds  were  stolen;  they 
might  have  been  mislaid,  and  would 
turn  up  somewhere.  Mr.  Brison  was 
surprised,  and  asked  my  lady  if  she 
had  any  idea  where  they  were  liable 
to  turn  up ;  and  my  lady  looked  an 
noyed,  and  said  it  was  a  silly  ques 
tion,  and  that  she  " wasn't  a  clair 
voyant." 

40 


DIAMOND  CASE 

Three  days  after  this  Mr.  John 
Gilsey,  who  is  a  detective,  and,  I 
have  heard  since,  a  very  famous 
gentleman,  was  engaged  by  Lord 
Castlecourt  to  "work  upon  the  case." 
Mr.  Gilsey  was  very  soft-spoken  and 
pleasant.  He  did  not  muddle  you, 
as  Mr.  Brison  did,  and  it  was  very 
easy  to  tell  him  all  you  knew  or 
could  remember,  which  he  always 
seemed  anxious  to  hear.  He  had  me 
up  in  the  sitting-room  twice,  once 
alone  and  once  with  Mr.  Brison,  and 
they  asked  me  a  host  of  questions 
about  Sara  Dwight.  I  told  them  all 
I  could  think  of;  and  when  I  came 
to  her  hands,  and  how  they  were 
white  and  fine,  like  a  lady's,  I  saw 
Mr.  Brison  look  at  Mr.  Gilsey  and 
raise  his  eyebrows. 

"Does  it  seem  to  you,"  he  says, 
41 


THE  CASTLECOUET 

scribbling  words  in  Ms  note-book, 
"that  this  sounds  like  Laura  the 
Lady?" 

And  Mr.  Gilsey  answered: 

"The  nianner  of  operating  sounds 
like  her,  I  must  admit." 

"She  was  in  Chicago  when  last 
heard  of,"  says  Mr.  Brison,  stopping 
in  his  scribbling,  "but  we've  infor 
mation  within  the  last  week  that 
she's  left  there." 

"Laura  the  Lady  is  in  London," 
Mr.  Gilsey  remarked,  looking  at  his 
finger  nails.  "I  saw  her  three  weeks 
ago  at  Earlscourt." 

Mr.  Brison  got  red  in  the  face  and 
puffed  out  his  lips,  as  if  he  was  going 
to  say  something,  but  decided  not  to. 
He  scribbled  some  more,  and  then, 
looking  at  what  he  had  written  as  if 
he  was  reading  it  over,  says: 
42 


DIAMOND  CASE 

"If  that's  the  case,  there's  very 
little  doubt  as  to  who  planned  and 
executed  this  robbery.'7 

" That's  a  very  comfortable  state 
of  affairs  to  arrive  at,"  says  Mr. 
Gilsey,  "and  I  hope  it's  the  correct 
one."  And  that  was  all  he  said  that 
time  about  what  he  thought. 

After  this  we  stayed  on  at  Bur- 
ridge's  for  the  rest  of  the  season,  but 
it  was  not  half  as  cheerful  or  gay  as 
it  had  been  before.  My  lord  was  often 
moody  and  cross,  for  he  felt  the  loss 
of  the  diamonds  bitterly;  and  my 
lady  was  out  of  spirits  and  moped, 
for  she  was  very  fond  of  him,  and 
to  have  him  take  it  this  way  seemed 
to  upset  her.  Mr.  Brison  or  Mr. 
Gilsey  were  constantly  popping  in 
and  murmuring  in  the  sitting-room, 
but  they  got  no  further  on — at  least, 
43 


CASTLECOURT  DIAMOND   CASE 

there  was  no  talk  of  finding  the  dia 
monds,  which  was  all  that  counted. 
This  is  all  I  know  of  the  theft  of 
the  necklace.  What  happened  at 
that  time,  and  what  Mr.  Gilsey  calls 
"the  surrounding  circumstances  of 
the  case,"  I  have  tried  to  put  down 
as  clearly  and  as  simply  as  possible. 
I  have  gone  over  them  so  often,  and 
been  forced  to  be  so  careful,  that  I 
think  they  will  be  found  to  be  quite 
correct  in  every  particular. 


44 


Statement  of  Lilly  Bingham,  known 
in  England  as  Laura  Brice,  in  the 
United  States  as  Frances  Latimer, 
to  the  police  of  both  countries  as 
Laura  the  Lady,  besides  having  re 
cently  figured  as  a  housemaid  at 
Burridge's  Hotel,  London,  under  the 
alias  of  Sara  Dwight.  :::::: 


Statement  of  Lilly  Bingham,  known 
in  England  as  Laura  Brice,  in  the 
United  States  as  Frances  Latimer, 
to  the  police  of  both  countries  as 
Laura  the  Lady,  besides  having  re 
cently  figured  as  a  housemaid  at 
Burridge's  Hotel,  London,  under  the 
alias  of  Sara  Dwight.  :  :  :  :  : 

I  NEVER  was  so  glad  of  anything  in 
my  life  as  to  get  out  of  that 
beastly  hole,  Chicago.  I'll  certainly 
never  go  back  there  unless  there  is 
an  inducement  big  enough  to  com 
pensate  for  the  elevated  railroad,  the 
lake,  the  noise,  the  winds,  the  restau 
rants,  the  climate,  and  the  people. 
Ugh,  what  a  nightmare! 

England's  the  country  for  me,  and 
London  is  the  focus  of  it.  You  can 
live  like  a  Christian  here,  and  enjoy 
all  the  refinements  and  decencies  of 
life  for  a  reasonable  consideration. 
47 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

How  my  heart  leaped  when  I  saw 
the  old,  gray,  sooty  walls  looming  up 
through  the  river  haze — I  thought  it 
best  to  sneak  by  the  back  way,  be 
cause  if  I  go  up  the  front  stairs  and 
ring  the  bell  there  may  be  loiterers 
round  who  had  seen  Laura  the  Lady 
before,  and  might  become  imperti 
nently  curious  about  her  future 
movements.  And  then  when  I  saw 
Tom  waiting  for  me — my  own  Tom, 
that  I  lawfully  married,  in  a  burst 
of  affection,  three  years  ago,  at 
Leamington — I  shouted  out  greet 
ings,  and  danced  on  the  deck,  and 
waved  my  handkerchief.  It  was 
worth  while  having  lived  in  Chicago 
for  a  year  to  come  back  to  London 
and  Tom  and  a  little  furnished  flat 
in  Knightsbridge. 

We    were    very    respectable    and 
48 


DIAMOND  CASE 

quiet  for  a  month — just  a  few  callers 
climbing  up  the  front  stairs,  and 
demure  female  tea-parties  at  inter 
vals.  I  bought  plants  to  put  in  the 
windows,  and  did  knitting  in  a  con 
spicuous  solitude  which  the  neigh 
bors  could  overlook.  When  I  saw 
the  maiden  lady  opposite  scrutiniz 
ing  me  through  an  opera-glass  I  felt 
like  sending  her  my  marriage  cer 
tificate  to  run  her  eye  over  and  re 
turn.  We  even  hired  a  maid  of  all 
work  from  an  agency  as  a  touch  of 
local  color  on  this  worthy  domestic 
picture.  But  when  the  Castlecourt 
diamond  scheme  began  to  ripen  I 
nagged  at  her  till  she  was  impudent 
and  bundled  her  off.  Maud  Durlan 
came  in  then,  put  on  a  cap  and 
apron,  and  played  her  part  a  good 
deal  better  than  she  used  to  when 
49 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

she  acted  soubrettes  in  the  vaude 
ville. 

We  were  two  weeks  lying  low, 
maturing  our  plans,  tho  when  I  left 
Chicago  I  knew  what  I  was  coming 
back  for.  Outwardly  all  was  the 
same  as  usual — the  decent  callers 
still  climbed  the  front  stairs,  and  el 
derly  ladies  who,  without  any  stretch 
of  imagination,  might  have  been  my 
mother  and  aunts,  dropped  in  for  tea. 
I  used  to  wonder  how  the  people  on 
the  floor  below — they  were  the  fam 
ily  of  a  man  who  made  rubber  tires 
for  bicycles — would  have  felt  if  they 
could  have  seen  Maud,  our  neat  and 
respectable  slavy,  sitting  with  the 
French  heels  of  her  slippers  caught 
on  the  third  shelf  of  the  bookcase, 
dropping  cigarette  ashes  into  the 
waste-paper  basket. 
50 


DIAMOND  CASE 

When  all  was  ready,  Tom  and  I 
left  for  a  " business"  trip  on  the 
Continent.  We  went  away  in  a  four- 
wheeler,  driven  by  Handsome  Harry, 
the  top  piled  with  luggage,  my  face 
at  the  window  smiling  a  last,  caution 
ing  good-by  at  Maud.  Five  days 
later,  under  the  name  of  Sara 
Dwight,  I  was  installed  as  house 
maid  on  the  third  floor  of  Bur  ridge's 
Hotel. 

I  had  done  work  of  that  kind  be 
fore — once  in  New  York,  and  at  an 
other  time  in  Paris;  having  been 
born  and  spent  my  childhood  in  that 
cheerful  city,  my  French  is  irre 
proachable.  The  famous  robbery  of 
the  Comtesse  de  Chateaugay's  rubies 
was  my  work — but  I  mustn't  brag 
about  past  exploits.  I  had  never  been 
engaged  in  a  hotel  theft  of  the  im- 
51 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

portance  of  the  Castlecourt  one. 
The  necklace  was  valued  at  between 
eight  thousand  and  nine  thousand 
pounds.  The  stones  were  not  so  re 
markable  for  size  as  for  quality. 
They  were  of  an  unusually  even  ex 
cellence  and  pure  water. 

After  I  had  been  in  the  hotel  for 
a  few  days  and  watched  the  Castle- 
court  party,  all  apprehension  left 
me,  and  I  felt  confident  and  cool. 
They  were  an  extremely  simple  lay 
out.  Lady  Castlecourt  was  a  beauty 
— a  seductive,  smiling,  white  and 
gold  person,  without  any  sense  at 
all.  Her  husband  adored  her.  Be 
ing  a  man  of  some  brains,  that  was 
what  might  have  been  expected. 
What  might  not  have  been  expected 
was  that  she  appeared  to  reciprocate 
his  affection.  Having  made  a  care- 
52 


DIAMOND  CASE 

ful  study  of  the  manners  and  cus 
toms  of  the  upper  classes,  I  was  not 
prepared  for  this.  I  note  it  as  one 
of  those  exceptions  to  rule  which 
occur  now  and  then  in  the  animal 
kingdom. 

Besides  the  marquis  and  his  lady, 
there  were  a  maid  and  a  valet  to  be 
considered.  The  former  was  a 
dense,  honest  woman  named  Sophy 
Jeffers,  close  on  to  forty,  and  of  the 
unredeemed  ugliness  of  the  normal 
lady's  maid.  Such  being  the  case, 
it  was  but  natural  to  find  that  she 
was  in  love  with  Chawlmers,  the 
valet,  who  was  twenty-seven  and 
good-looking.  Jeffers  was  too  truth 
ful  to  tamper  with  her  own  age,  but 
she  did  not  feel  it  necessary  to  keep 
up  the  same  rigid  standard  when  it 
came  to  Chawlmers.  It  was  less  of 
53 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

a  lie  to  make  him  ten  years  older 
than  herself  ten  years  younger. 
From  these  facts  I  drew  my  deduc 
tions  as  to  the  sort  of  adversary 
Jeffers  might  be,  and  I  found  that, 
by  a  modest  avoidance  of  Chawl- 
mers'  society,  I  could  make  her  my 
lifelong  friend. 

The  evening  of  the  Duke  of  Dux- 
bury  's  dinner  was  the  time  I  decided 
upon  as  the  most  convenient  for  tak 
ing  the  stones.  I  had  heard  from 
Jeffers  that  the  marquis  and  mar 
chioness  were  going.  When  her 
ladyship  left  her  rooms  that  after 
noon  I  heard  her  tell  Jeffers  that  she 
would  not  be  back  till  after  six,  and 
to  have  everything  ready  at  that 
hour.  Off  and  on  for  the  next  two 
hours  I  was  doing  work  about  the 
corridor  with  a  duster.  It  was  near 
54 


DIAMOND  CASE 

six  when  I  heard  the  two  servants 
talking  in  the  sitting-room.  A  bird's- 
eye  view  through  the  keyhole  showed 
me  where  they  were,  and  that  they 
were  engaged  in  searching  for  some 
thing  in  the  desk.  It  was  my  chance. 
With  my  housemaid's  pass-key  I 
opened  the  door  a  crack,  and  peeped 
in.  The  leather  case  of  the  diamonds 
stood  on  the  dressing-table  not  twen 
ty  feet  from  the  door.  It  did  not 
take  five  minutes  to  enter,  open  the 
case,  take  the  necklace,  and  leave. 
Jeffers  heard  me.  She  was  in  the 
room  almost  as  I  closed  the  door. 
Before  she  could  have  got  into  the 
hall  I  was  in  the  broom-closet  hunt 
ing  for  a  dust-pan.  But  she  evi 
dently  suspected  nothing,  for  the 
door  did  not  open  and  there  was  no 
indication  of  disturbance. 
55 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

Two  days  later  Tom  and  I  re 
turned  from  our  " business  trip"  to 
the  Continent.  I  quite  prided  myself 
on  the  way  our  luggage  was  labeled. 
It  had  just  the  right  knock-about, 
piebald  look.  We  drove  up  in  a 
four-wheeler,  Handsome  Harry  on 
the  box,  and  Maud  opened  the  door 
for  us.  For  the  next  few  days  we 
were  quiet  and  kept  indoors.  We 
spent  the  time  peacefully  in  the 
kitchen,  breaking  the  settings  of  the 
diamonds  and  reading  about  the  rob 
bery  in  the  papers.  As  soon  as  things 
simmered  down,  Tom  was  to  take  the 
stones  across  to  Holland,  where  they 
would  be  distributed.  We  threw 
away  the  settings,  and  put  the  dia 
monds  in  a  small  box  of  chamois 
skin  that  I  pinned  to  my  corset  with 
a  safety-pin. 

56 


DIAMOND  CASE 

That  was  the  way  things  were — 
untroubled  as  a  summer  sea — till  ten 
days  after  our  return,  when  I  began 
to  get  restive.  I  had  had  what  they 
call  in  America  "a  strenuous  time" 
at  Burridge's,  working  like  a  slave 
all  day,  with  not  a  soul  to  speak  to 
but  a  parcel  of  ignorant  servant  wo 
men,  and  I  wanted  livening  up.  I 
longed  for  the  light  and  noise  of 
Piccadilly,  the  crowd  and  the  res 
taurants;  but  what  I  wanted  partic 
ularly  was  to  go  to  the  theater  and 
see  a  play  called  "The  Forgiven 
Prodigal" 

Maud  and  Tom  raised  a  clamor  of 
disapproval:  What  was  the  use  of 
running  risks?  did  I  think,  because 
I'd  been  in  Chicago  for  nearly  a 
year,  that  I  was  forgotten?  did  I 
think  the  men  in  Scotland  Yard  who 
57 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

knew  me  were  all  dead?  did  I  think 
the  excitement  of  the  Castlecourt 
robbery  was  over  and  done?  I 
yawned  at  them,  and  then  told  them, 
with  a  gentle  smile,  that  they  were  a 
" pusillanimous  pair."  There  might 
be  many  men  in  Scotland  yard  who 
knew  me,  and  that,  as  they  say  in 
Chicago,  "is  all  the  good  it  would 
do  them."  They  couldn't  arrest  me 
for  sitting  peacefully  at  a  theater 
looking  at  a  play.  As  for  connect 
ing  me  with  Sara  Dwight,  I  would 
give  any  one  a  hundred  pounds  who, 
when  I  was  dressed  and  had  my  war 
paint  on,  would  find  in  me  a  single 
suggestion  of  the  late  housemaid  at 
Burridge's.  So  I  talked  them  down; 
and  if  I  didn't  convince  them  of  the 
reasonableness  of  my  arguments,  I 
58 


DIAMOND  CASE 

at    least    managed    to    soothe    their 
fears. 

I  dressed  myself  with  especial 
care,  and  when  the  last  rite  of  my 
toilet  was  accomplished  looked  crit 
ically  in  the  glass  to  see  if  anything 
of  Sara  Dwight  remained.  The  sur 
vey  contented  me.  Sara's  mother, 
if  there  be  such  a  person,  would 
have  denied  me.  I  was  all  in  black, 
a  sweeping,  spangly  dress  I  had 
bought  in  New  York,  cut  low,  and 
my  neck  is  not  my  weak  point,  es 
pecially  when  creme  des  moieties  has 
been  rubbed  over  it.  My  hair  was 
waved  (Maud  does  it  very  well, 
much  better  than  she  cooks,  I  regret 
to  say),  and  dressed  high,  with  a 
small  red  wreath  of  geraniums 
round  it.  Nose  powdered  to  a  proba 
ble,  ladylike  whiteness,  a  touch  of 
59 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

rouge,  a  tiny  mouche  near  the  corner 
of  one  eye,  and  long,  black  gloves — 
and,  presto  change !  I  wore  no  jewels 
— their  owners  might  recognize  them. 
One  could  hardly  say  I  "wore"  the 
Castlecourt  diamonds,  which  were 
fastened  to  my  corset  with  a  safety- 
pin.  They  were  rather  uncomfort 
able,  but  they  were  the  only  thing 
about  me  that  were. 

As  I  stood  in  front  of  the  glass 
putting  on  finishing  touches,  Maud 
left  the  room,  and  went  to  the  draw 
ing-room  to  watch  for  Handsome 
Harry,  who  was  to  drive  our  hansom. 
I  did  not  like  taking  a  hired  driver, 
and,  thank  goodness,  I  didn't !  I  was 
putting  a  last  soupgon  of  scarlet  on 
my  lips,  when  she  came  back,  step 
ping  softly,  and  with  her  eyes  round 
and  uneasy  looking. 
60 


DIAMOND  CASE 

"I  don't  know  whether  I'm  nerv 
ous,"  she  says,  "but  there's  a  man 
just  gone  by  in  a  hansom,  and  he 
leaned  out  and  looked  hard  at  our 
windows." 

"I  hope  it  amused  him,"  I  said, 
looking  critically  at  my  lips,  to  see 
if  they  were  not  a  little  too  incred 
ibly  ruddy.  "It's  a  harmless  and 
innocent  way  of  passing  the  time, 
so  we  mustn't  be  hard  on  him  if  it 
doesn't  happen  to  be  very  intel 
lectual.  Come,  help  me  on  with  my 
cloak,  and  don't  stand  there  like 
Patience  on  a  monument  staring  at 
thieves." 

I  was  irritated  with  Maud,  trying 
to  upset  my  peace  of  mind  that  way. 
She'd  had  any  amount  of  good  times 
while  I'd  been  at  Burridge's  with 
my  nose  to  the  grindstone.  And  here 
61 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

she  was,  the  first  time  I'd  got  a 
chance  to  have  a  spree,  looking  like 
a  depressed  owl  and  talking  like  the 
warning  voice  of  Conscience !  As  she 
silently  held  up  my  cloak  and  I 
thrust  my  hand  in  the  sleeve,  I  said, 
over  my  shoulder : 

"And  you  needn't  go  upsetting 
Tom  by  telling  him  about  strange 
men  in  hansoms  who  stare  up  at  our 
front  windows.  I  want  to  have  a 
good  time  this  evening,  not  feel  that 
I'm  sitting  by  a  guilty  being  who 
jumps  every  time  he's  spoken  to  as 
if  the  curse  of  Cain  was  on  him." 

Maud  said  nothing,  and  I  shook 
myself  into  my  cloak  and  swept  out 
to  the  hall,  where  Tom  was  waiting. 

There  had  been  a  slight  fog  all 
afternoon,  and  now  it  was  thick ;  not 
a  "pea-soup"  one,  but  a  good,  damp, 
62 


DIAMOND  CASE 

obscuring  fog — a  regular  " burglar's 
delight/'  As  we  came  down  the 
steps  we  saw  the  two  hansom  lamps 
making  blurs,  like  lights  behind 
white  cotton  screens.  Tom  was 
grumbling  about  it  and  about  going 
out  generally  as  he  helped  me  in.  And 
just  at  that  minute,  still  and  quick, 
like  a  picture  going  across  a  magic- 
lantern  slide,  I  saw  a  man  on  the 
other  side  of  the  street  step  out  of 
the  shadow  of  a  porch,  and  glide 
swiftly  and  softly  past  the  light  of 
the  lamp  and  up  the  street,  to 
where  the  form  of  a  waiting  hansom 
loomed.  It  was  all  very  simple  and 
natural,  but  his  walk  was  odd — so 
noiseless  and  stealthy. 

I  got  in,  and  Tom  followed  me. 
He  hadn't  seen  anything.     For  the 
moment  I  didn't  speak  of  it,  because 
63 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

I  wasn't  sure.  But  I've  got  to  admit 
that  my  heart  beat  against  the  Cas- 
tlecourt  diamonds  harder  than  was 
comfortable.  We  started,  and  I  lis 
tened,  and  faintly,  some  way  behind 
us,  I  heard  the  ker-lump! — ker-lump! 
— ker-lump!  of  another  horse's  hoofs 
on  the  asphalt.  I  leaned  forward 
over  the  door,  and  tried  to  look 
back.  Through  the  mist  I  saw  the 
two  yellow  eyes  of  the  hansom  be 
hind  us.  Tom  asked  me  what  was 
the  matter,  and  I  told  him.  He 
whistled — a  long,  single  note — then 
leaned  back  very  steady  and  still. 
We  didn't  say  anything  for  a  bit,  but 
just  sat  tight  and  listened. 

It  kept  behind  us  that  way  for 
about  ten  minutes.     Then  I  pushed 
up  the  trap,  and  said  to  Harry: 
64 


DIAMOND  CASE 

" What's  this  hansom  behind  us 
up  to,  Harry?" 

" That's  what  I  want  to  know,"  he 
says,  quiet  and  low. 

"Lose  it,  if  you  can,  without  being 
too  much  of  a  Jehu,"  I  answered, 
and  shut  the  trap. 

He  tried  to  lose  it,  and  we  began  a 
chase,  slow  at  first,  and  then  faster 
and  faster,  down  one  street  and  up 
the  other.  The  fog  by  this  time  was 
as  thick  and  white  as  wool,  and  we 
seemed  to  break  through  it  like  a 
ship,  as  if  we  were  going  through 
something  dense  and  hard  to  pene 
trate.  It  seemed  to  me,  too,  a  mad 
deningly  quiet  night.  There  was  no 
traffic,  no  noise  of  wheels  to  get 
mixed  with  ours.  The  ker-lump! — 
ker-lump!  of  our  horse's  hoofs  came 
back  as  clear  as  sounds  in  a  calm  at 
65 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

sea  from  the  long  lines  of  house 
fronts.  And  that  devilish  hansom 
never  lost  us.  It  kept  just  the  same 
distance  behind  us.  We  could  hear 
its  horse's  hoofs,  like  an  echo  of  our 
own,  beating  through  the  fog.  It  got 
no  nearer ;  it  went  no  faster.  It  did 
not  seem  in  a  hurry,  it  never  devi 
ated  from  our  track.  There  was 
something  hideously  unagitated  and 
cool  about  it — a  sort  of  deadly,  sin 
ister  persistence.  I  saw  it  in  imag 
ination,  like  a  live  monster  with 
bulging  yellow  eyes,  staring  with 
gloating  greediness  at  us  as  we  ran 
feebly  along  before  it. 

Tom  didn't  say  much.  He  doesn't 
in  moments  like  this.  He's  got  the 
nerve  all  right,  but  not  the  brain. 
There's  no  inventive  ability  in  Tom, 
he's  not  built  for  crises.  Handsome 
66 


DIAMOND  CASE 

Harry  now  and  then  dropped  some 
remark  through  the  trap,  which  was 
like  a  trickle  of  icy  water  down  one's 
spine.  I  began  to  realize  that  my 
lips  were  dry,  and  that  the  insides 
of  my  gloves  were  damp.  I  knew 
that  whatever  was  to  be  done  had 
to  come  from  me.  I'd  got  them  into 
this,  and,  as  they  say  in  Chicago, 
"it  was  up  to  me"  to  get  them  out. 

I  leaned  over  the  doors,  and  looked 
at  the  street  we  were  going  through. 
I  know  that  part  of  London  like  a 
book — the  insides  of  some  of  the 
houses  as  well  as  the  outsides;  it's  a 
part  of  our  business  in  which  I  'm  sup 
posed  to  be  quite  an  expert.  The  street 
was  a  small  one  near  Walworth  Cres 
cent,  the  houses  not  the  smartest  in 
the  locality,  but  good,  solid,  reliable 
buildings  inhabited  by  good,  solid, 
67 


THE  CASTLECOTJRT 

reliable  people.  The  lower  floors 
were  all  alight.  It  was  the  heart  of 
the  season,  and  in  many  of  them 
there  were  dinners  afoot.  I  thought, 
with  a  flash  of  longing — such  as  a 
drowning  man  might  feel  if  he 
thought  of  suddenly  finding  himself 
on  terra  firma — of  serene,  smiling 
people  sitting  down  to  soup.  I'd 
have  given  the  Castlecourt  diamonds 
at  that  moment  to  have  been  sitting 
down  with  them  to  cold  soup,  sour 
soup,  greasy  soup,  any  kind  of  soup 
— only  to  be  sitting  down  to  soup ! 

We  turned  a  corner  sharp,  going 
now  at  a  tearing  pace,  and  I  saw 
before  us  a  length  of  street  wrapped 
in  fog,  and  blurred  at  regular  inter 
vals  by  the  lights  of  lamps.  It  looked 
ghostlike — so  white,  so  noiseless, 
lined  on  either  side  by  dim  house 
68 


DIAMOND  CASE 

fronts  blotted  with  an  indistinct 
sputter  of  lights.  There  was  not  a 
sound  but  our  own  horse's  hoof- 
beats,  and  far  off,  like  a  noise  muf 
fled  by  cotton  wool,  the  echo  of  our 
pursuer's.  Through  the  opaque, 
motionless  atmosphere  I  saw  that 
the  vista  into  which  I  stared  was 
deserted.  There  was  not  a  human 
figure  or  a  vehicle  in  sight.  It  was  a 
lull,  a  brief  respite,  a  moment  of  in 
calculable  value  to  us! 

My  mind  was  as  clear  as  crystal, 
and  I  felt  a  sense  of  cool,  high  ex 
hilaration.  I  have  only  felt  this 
way  in  desperate  moments,  and  this 
was  a  truly  desperate  moment — a 
pursuer  on  our  heels  and  the  dia 
monds  in  my  possession! 

I  leaned  over  the  doors,  and  look 
ed  up  the  line  of  houses.  It  was 
'  69 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

Farley  Street.  Who  lived  in  Farley 
Street?  Suddenly  I  remembered 
that  I  knew  all  about  the  people 
who  lived  in  No.  15.  They  were 
Americans  named  Kennedy — a  man, 
his  wife,  and  a  little  girl.  He  was 
manager  of  the  London  branch  of  a 
Chicago  concern  called  the  "  Colonial 
Box,  Tub,  and  Cordage  Company," 
that  I  had  often  heard  of  in  America. 
We  had  marked  the  house,  and  made 
extensive  investigations  before  I  left, 
intending  to  add  it  to  our  list,  as 
Mrs.  Kennedy  had  some  handsome 
jewelry  and  silver.  Since  my  re 
turn  I  had  seen  her  name  in  the 
papers  at  various  entertainments, 
and  Maud  had  told  me  a  lot  about 
her  social  successes.  She  was  pret 
ty,  and  people  were  taking  her 
up.  All  this — that  it  takes  me  some 
70 


DIAMOND  CASE 

minutes  to  tell — flashed  through  my 
mind  in  a  revolution  of  the  wheels. 

I  could  see  now  that  the  windows 
of  No.  15  were  lit  up.  The  Ken 
nedys  were  evidently  at  home,  per 
haps  had  a  dinner  on.  They,  along 
with  the  rest  of  the  world,  would  in 
a  minute  be  sitting  down  to  soup. 
They  might  be  sitting  down  now;  it 
was  close  on  to  half -past  eight.  Why 
could  not  we  sit  down  with  them? 

I  lifted  the  top,  and  said  to  Harry : 

"Is  the  hansom  round  the  corner 
yet?" 

"No,"  he  answered,  "it's  our  only 
chance.  They're  still  a  bit  behind  us. 
I  can  tell  by  the  sound." 

"Drive  to  No.  15,  second  from  the 
corner,"  I  said,  "and  go  as  if  the 
devil  was  after  you." 

I  dropped  the  trap,  and  as  we  tore 
71 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

down  to  No.  15  I  spoke  in  a  series  of 
broken  sentences  to  Tom. 

"We're  going  in  here  to  dinner. 
You  must  look  as  if  it  was  all  right. 
If  we  carry  it  off  well,  they  won't 
dare  to  question.  We're  Major  and 
Mrs.  Thatcher,  of  the  Lancers,  that 
arrived  Saturday  from  India. 
They're  Americans,  and  won't  know 
anything,  so  you  can  say  about  what 
you  like.  Give  them  India  hot  from 
the  pan.  I've  been  living  in  London 
while  you've  been  away.  That's  how 
I  come  to  know  them  and  you  don't. 
My  Christian  name's  Ethel.  Do  the 
dull,  heavy,  haw-haw  style.  Ameri 
cans  expect  it." 

We  brought  up  at  the  curb  with  a 

jerk,    threw    back    the    doors,    and 

dashed  up  the  steps.     I  caught  a 

vanishing     glimpse     of     Handsome 

72 


DIAMOND  CASE 

Harry  leaning  far  forward  to  lash 
the  horse  as  the  hansom  went  bound 
ing  off  into  the  fog.  As  we  stood 
pressed  against  the  door,  Tom  whis 
pered  : 

"What  the  devil  is  their  name?" 
"Kennedy,"  I  hissed  at  him — 
"Cassius  P.  Kennedy.  Came  orig 
inally  from  Necropolis  City,  Ohio; 
lived  in  Chicago  as  a  clerk  in  the 
Colonial  Box,  Tub,  and  Cordage 
Company,  and  then  was  made  man 
ager  of  the  London  branch.  Their 
weak  point  is  society.  If  any  peo 
ple  are  there,  keep  your  mouth  shut. 
Be  dense  and  unresponsive." 

We  heard  the  rattle  of  the  pursu 
ing  hansom  at  the  end  of  the  street, 
then  through  the  ground  glass  of  the 
door  saw  a  man  servant's  approach 
ing  figure. 

73 


THE  CASTLBCOURT 

"Only  stay  a  few  minutes  over  the 
coffee.  We're  going  on  to  the 
opera,"  I  whispered,  as  the  door 
opened. 

I  swept  in,  Tom  on  my  heels.  We 
came  as  fast  as  we  could  without 
actually  falling  in  and  dashing  the 
servant  aside,  for  the  noise  of  our 
pursuer  was  loud  in  our  ears,  and 
we  knew  we  were  lost  if  we  were 
seen  entering.  As  Tom  somewhat 
hastily  shut  the  door,  I  was  con 
scious  of  the  expression  of  surprise 
on  the  face  of  the  solemn  butler.  He 
did  not  say  anything,  but  looked  it. 
I  slid  out  of  my  cloak,  and  handed 
it,  languidly,  to  him. 

"  No,  I  won't  go  up-stairs,"  I 
said,  in  answer  to  his  glare  of  grow 
ing  amaze. 

Then  I  turned  to  the  glass  in  the 
74 


DIAMOND  CASE 

hat-rack,  and  began  to  arrange  my 
hair.  I  could  see,  reflected  in  it,  a 
pair  of  portieres,  half  open,  and  af 
fording  a  glimpse  of  a  room  beyond, 
bathed  in  the  subdued  rosy  light  of 
lamps.  I  was  conscious  of  move 
ment  there  behind  the  portieres — a 
stir  of  skirts,  a  sort  of  hush  of  curi 
osity. 

There  had  been  the  sound  of  voices 
when  we  came  in.     Now  I  noticed 
the  stealthy,  occasional  sibilant  of  a 
whisper.  There  was  no  dinner-party. 
We  were  going  to  dine  en  famille. 
So  much  the  better.    My  hair  neat, 
I  turned  to  the  butler,  and,  touch 
ing  the  jet  of  my  corsage  with  an 
arranging  hand,  murmured: 
" Major  and  Mrs.  Thatcher." 
The  man  drew  back  the  curtain, 
and,  with  our  name  going  before  us 
75 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

in  loud  announcement,  I  rustled  into 
the  room,  Tom  behind  me. 

Standing  beside  an  empty  fire 
place,  and  facing  the  entrance  in  at 
titudes  of  expectancy,  were  a  young 
man  and  woman.  In  the  soft  pink 
lamplight  I  had  an  impression  of 
their  two  astonished  faces,  or,  rather, 
astonished  eyes,  for  they  were  mak 
ing  a  spirited  struggle  to  obliterate 
all  surprise  from  their  faces.  The 
woman  was  succeeding  the  best.  She 
did  it  quite  well.  When  she  saw  me 
she  smiled  almost  naturally,  and 
came  forward  with  a  fair  imitation 
of  a  hostess '  welcoming  manner.  She 
was  young  and  very  pretty — a  fine- 
featured,  delicate  woman,  in  a  float 
ing  lace  tea-gown.  Her  hand  was 
thin  and  small,  a  real  American 
hand,  and  gleamed  with  rings.  I 
76 


DIAMOND  CASE 

could  see  her  husband,  out  of  the  tail 
of  my  eye,  battling  with  his  amaze 
ment  and  staring  at  Toon.  Tom  was 
behind  me,  looming  up  bulkily,  not 
saying  anything,  but  looking  blankly 
through  the  glass  wedged  in  his  eye 
and  pulling  his  mustache. 

"My  dear  Mrs.  Kennedy,"  I  said, 
in  my  sweetest  and  most  languid 
drawl,  "are  we  late'?  I  hope  not. 
There  is  such  a  fog,  really  I  thought 
we'd  never  get  here." 

My  fingers  touched  her  hand,  and 
my  eyes  looked  into  hers.  She  was 
immensely  curious  and  upset,  but 
she  smiled  boldly  and  almost  easily. 
I  could  see  her  inward  wrestlings  to 
place  me,  and  to  wonder  if  she  could 
possibly  have  asked  us,  and  had  for 
gotten  that  too. 

"And  at  last,"  I  continued,  glibly, 
77 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

"I  am  able  to  present  my  husband. 
I  was  afraid  you  were  beginning  to 
think  he  was  a  sort  of  Mrs.  Harris. 
Harry,  dear,  Mrs.  and  Mr.  Ken 
nedy." 

They  all  bowed.  Tom  held  out 
his  big  paw,  and  took  her  little  hand 
for  a  moment,  and  then  dropped  it. 
He  had  just  the  stolid,  awkward, 
owlish  look  of  a  certain  kind  of 
army  man. 

"Awfully  glad  to  get  here,  I'm 
sure,"  he  boomed  out.  And  then  he 
said  "What?"  and  looked  at  Mr. 
Kennedy. 

Mr.  Kennedy  was  not  as  much 
master  of  the  situation  as  his  wife. 
He  wasn't  exactly  frightened,  but 
he  was  inwardly  distracted  with  not 
knowing  what  to  do. 

"Pleased  to  meet  you,"  he  said, 
78 


DIAMOND  CASE 

loudly,  to  Tom,  quite  forgetting  Ms 
English  accent.  "Glad  you  could 
get  around  here.  Foggy  night,  all 
right!" 

I  looked  at  the  clock.  Tom  stood 
solemnly  on  the  hearth-rug,  staring 
at  the  fire.  The  Kennedys,  for  a 
moment,  could  think  of  nothing  to 
say,  and  I  had  to  look  at  the  clock 
again,  screw  up  my  eyes,  and  re 
mark: 

"  Just  half  past.    We're  not  really 

late   at   all.     You  know,   Harry   is 

such   a   punctual   person,   and   he's 

•afraid    I've    got    into    unpunctual 

habits  while  he's  been  away." 

"He  lias  been  away  for  some  time, 
hasn't  he?"  said- Mrs.  Kennedy,  look 
ing  from  one  to  the  other  with  pi 
quant  eyes  that  yearned  for  infor 
mation. 

79 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

"Four  years  with  the  Lancers  in 
India, "  Tom  boomed  out  again. 

The  Kennedys  were  relieved. 
They'd  got  hold  of  something.  They 
both  sat  down,  and  it  was  obvious 
that  they  gathered  themselves  to 
gether  for  new  efforts. 

I  did  likewise.  I  realized  that  I 
must  be  biographical  to  a  reasonable 
extent — just  enough  to  satisfy  curi 
osity,  without  giving  the  impression 
that  I  was  sitting  down  to  tell  my 
life-story  the  way  the  heroine  does 
in  the  first  act  of  a  play. 

"He  arrived  only  last  Saturday," 
I  said,  "and  you  may  imagine  how 
pleased  I  was  to  be  able  to  bring  him 
to-night,  in  answer  to  your  kind  in 
vitation." 

"Only  too  glad  he  could  come," 
murmured  Mrs.  Kennedy,  oblivious 
80 


DIAMOND  CASE 

of  the  terrified  side-glance  that  her 
husband  cast  in  her  direction. 
"Very  fortunate  that  you  had  this 
one  evening  disengaged." 

"I'm  taking  him  about  every 
where,"  I  continued,  with  girlish 
loquacity.  "People  had  begun  to 
think  that  Major  Thatcher  was  a 
myth,  and  I'm  showing  them  that 
there's  a  good  deal  of  him  and  he's 
very  much  alive.  For  four  years, 
you  know,  I've  been  living  here,  first 
in  those  miserable  lodgings  in  Half 
Moon  Street,  and  after  that  in  my 
flat — you  know  it — on  Gower  Street. 
A  nice  little  place  enough,  but  much 
nicer  now,  with  Harry  in  it." 

"Of  course,"  said  Mrs.  Kennedy, 

as  sympathetically  as  was  compatible 

with  her  eagerness  to  pounce  upon 

such  crumbs  of  information  as  I  let 

81 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

drop.     "How  dull  these  four  years 
have  been  for  you!" 

"Dull!"  I  echoed,  "dull  is  not  the 
word!"  And  I  gave  my  eyes  an  ex 
pressive,  acrobatic  roll  toward  the 
ceiling. 

"She  couldn't  have  stood  it  out 
there,"  said  Tom,  in  an  unexpected 
bass  growl.  "Too  hot!  Ethel  can't 
stand  the  heat — never  could." 

Then  he  lapsed  into  silence,  star 
ing  at  the  fire  under  Mr.  Kennedy's 
fascinated  gaze.  Dinner  was  just 
then  announced,  and  I  heard  him 
saying  as  he  walked  in  behind  us: 

"Is  India  very  hot,  Mrs.  Ken 
nedy?  Once  in  Delhi  I  sat  for  four 
days  in  a  cold  bath,  and  read  the 
Waverley  novels." 

To  which  Mrs.  Kennedy  answered, 
brightly: 

82 


DIAMOND  CASE 

"I  should  think  that  would  have 
put  you  to  sleep,  and  you  might  have 
been  drowned." 

That  was  one  of  the  most  remark 
able  dinners  I  ever  sat  through.  Of 
the  two  couples,  the  Kennedys  were 
the  least  at  ease.  They  were  more 
afraid  of  being  found  out  than  we 
were.  The  cold  sweat  would  break 
out  on  Mr.  Kennedy's  brow  when 
the  conversation  edged  up  toward  the 
subject  of  previous  meetings,  and 
Mrs.  Kennedy  would  begin  to  talk 
feverishly  about  other  things.  She 
was  the  kind  of  woman  who  hates 
to  be  unequal  to  any  social  emer 
gency;  and  I  am  bound  to  confess, 
considering  how  unprepared  she  was, 
she  held  her  own  this  time  with 
tact  and  spirit.  She  had  the  copious 
flow  of  small  talk  so  many  Ameri- 
83 


THE  CASTLBCOURT 

cans  seem  to  have  at  command,  and 
it  rippled  fluently  and  untiringly  on 
from  the  soup  to  the  savory.  I 
added  to  the  impression  I  had  al 
ready  made  by  alluding  to  various 
titled  friends  of  mine,  letting  their 
names  drop  carelessly  from  my  lips 
as  the  pearls  and  diamonds  fell  from 
the  mouth  of  the  virtuous  princess. 
Tom  did  well,  too  —  excellently 
well.  When  the  conversation  showed 
signs  of  languishing,  he  began  about 
India.  He  gave  us  some  strange 
pieces  of  information  about  that  dis 
tant  land  that  I  think  he  invented  on 
the  spur  of  the  moment,  and  he  told 
several  anecdotes  which  were  quite 
deadly  and  without  point.  When 
they  were  concluded,  he  gave  a  short, 
deep  laugh,  let  his  eye-glass  fall  out, 
84 


DIAMOND  CASE 

looked  at  us  one  after  the  other,  and 
said,  "What?" 

I  would  have  enjoyed  myself  im 
mensely  if  a  sense  of  heavy  uneasi 
ness  had  not  continued  to  weigh  on 
me.  What  troubled  me  was  the  un 
certainty  of  not  knowing  whether 
we  really  had  escaped  our  pursuers. 
There  was  the  horrible  possibility 
that  they  had  seen  us  enter  the 
house,  and  were  waiting  to  grab  us 
as  we  came  out.  If  they  were  there, 
and  I  was  caught  with  the  diamonds 
in  my  possession,  it  would  be  a  pretty 
dark  outlook  for  Laura  the  lady — so 
dark  I  could  not  bear  to  picture  it, 
even  in  thought.  As  I  talked  and 
laughed  with  my  hosts,  my  mind  was 
turning  over  every  possible  means 
by  which  I  could  get  rid  of  the 
stones  before  I  left  the  house,  trying 
85 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

to  think  up  some  way  in  which  I 
could  dispose  of  them,  and  yet  which 
would  not  place  them  quite  beyond 
reclaiming.  I  think  my  nerves  had 
been  shaken  by  that  spectral  pursuit 
in  the  fog.  Anyway,  I  wasn't  will 
ing  to  risk  a  second  edition  of  it. 

We  sat  over  dinner  a  little  more 
than  an  hour.  It  was  not  yet  ten 
when  Mrs.  Kennedy  and  I  rose,  and 
with  a  reminder  to  Tom  that  we 
were  to  "go  to  the  opera,"  I  trailed 
off  in  advance  of  my  hostess  across 
the  hall  into  the  drawing-room. 
Here  we  sat  down  by  a  little  gilt 
table,  and  disposed  ourselves  to  en 
dure  that  dreary  period  when  wo 
men  have  to  put  up  with  one  an 
other's  society  for  ten  minutes.  It 
was  my  opportunity  of  getting  rid  of 
the  diamonds,  and  I  knew  it. 
86 


DIAMOND  CASE 

« 

We  had  sipped  our  coffee  for  a 
few  minutes,  and  dodged  about  with 
the  usual  commonplaces,  when  I  sud 
denly  grew  grave,  and,  leaning  to 
ward  Mrs.  Kennedy,  said: 

"Now  that  we  are  alpne,  my  dear 
Mrs.  Kennedy,  I  must  ask  you  about 
a  matter  of  which  I  am  particularly 
anxious  to  hear  more." 

She  looked  at  me  with  furtive 
alarm.  I  could  see  she  was  nerving 
herself  for  a  grapple  with  the  un 
known. 

"What  matter?"  she  said. 

I  lowered  my  voice  to  the  key  of 
confidences  that  are  dire  if  not  ac 
tually  tragic: 

"How  about  poor  Amelia?"  I 
murmured. 

She  dropped  her  eyes  to  her  cup, 
frowning  a  little.  I  was  thrilling 
87 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

with  excitement,  waiting  to  hear 
what  she  was  going  to  say.  After  a 
moment  she  lifted  her  face,  perfectly 
calm  and  grave,  to  mine,  and  said: 

"  Really,  the  subject  is  a  very  pain 
ful  one  to  me.  I'd  rather  not  talk 
about  it." 

It  was  a  master-stroke.  I  could 
not  have  done  better  myself.  I 
eyed  her  with  open  admiration. 
You  never  would  have  thought  it  of 
her ;  she  seemed  so  young.  After  she 
had  spoken  she  gave  a  sigh,  and 
again  looked  down  at  her  cup,  with 
an  expression  on  her  face  of  pensive 
musing.  At  that  moment  the  voices 
of  the  men  leaving  the  dining-room 
struck  on  my  ear. 

I  put  my  hand  into  the  front  of 
my  dress,  and  undid  the  safety-pin. 


DIAMOND  CASE 

My  manner  became  furtive  and  hur 
ried. 

"Mrs.  Kennedy,"  I  said,  leaning 
across  the  table,  and  speaking  almost 
in  a  whisper,  "I  entirely  sympathize 
with  your  feelings,  but  I  am  very 
much  worried  about  Amelia.  You 
know  the — the — circumstances."  She 
raised  her  eyes,  looked  into  mine, 
and  nodded  darkly.  "Well,  I  have 
something  here  for  her.  It's  nothing 
much,"  I  said,  in  answer  to  a  look 
of  protest  I  saw  rising  in  her  face — 
"just  the  merest  trifle  I  would  like 
you  to  give  her.  She  will  under 
stand." 

I  drew  out  the  bag,  and  I  saw  her 

looking  at  it  with  curious,  uneasy 

eyes.     The   men   were   approaching 

through  the  back  drawing-room.     I 

89 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

rose  to  my  feet,  and  still  with  the 
secret,  hurried  air,  I  said: 

" Don't  give  yourself  any  trouble 
about  it.  It's  just  from  me  to  her. 
Our  husbands,  of  course,  mustn't 
know.  I'll  put  it  here.  Poor 
Amelia!" 

There  was  a  crystal  and  silver 
bowl  on  the  table,  and  I  put  the  bag 
into  it  and  placed  a  book  over  it. 

"Mrs.  Thatcher,"  she  said,  quick 
ly,  "really,  I—" 

"Hush!"  I  said,  dramatically, 
"  it  ?s  for  Amelia !  We  understand ! ' ' 

And  then  the  men  entered  the 
room. 

We  left  a  few  minutes  later.  The 
butler  called  a  cab  for  us,  and  even 
if  a  person  had  never  been  a  thief 
he  ought  to  have  had  some  idea  of 
how  we  felt  as  we  issued  out  of  that 
90 


DIAMOND  CASE 

house  and  walked  down  the  steps. 
We  neither  of  us  spoke  till  we  got 
inside  the  hansom  and  drove  off — 
safe  for  that  time,  anyway. 

We  went  to  Handsome  Harry's 
place  for  that  night,  and  sent  him 
back  for  Maud,  with  the  message 
she  must  get  out  immediately  with 
what  things  she  could  bring.  By 
eleven  she  was  with  us  with  her 
trunk  and  mine  on  top  of  a  four- 
wheeler.  The  next  morning  we  had 
scattered — I  for  Calais  en  route  for 
Paris,  Tom  for  Edinburgh.  Maud 
went  to  join  a  vaudeville  com 
pany  that  she  acts  with  "between- 
whiles."  We  had  to  leave  a  good 
many  things  in  the  flat;  but  I  felt 
we'd  got  out  cheaply,  and  had  no 
regrets. 

That  is  the  history  of  my  connec- 
91 


CASTLECOURT  DIAMOND   CASE 

tion  with  the  Castleeourt  diamond 
robbery.  Of  course,  it  was  not  the 
end  of  the  connection  of  our  gang 
with  the  case,  but  my  actual  partici 
pation  ended  here.  I  was  simply  an 
interested  spectator  from  this  on. 
My  statement  is  merely  the  record  of 
my  own  personal  share  in  the  theft, 
and  as  such  is  written  with  as  much 
clearness  and  fulness  as  I,  who  am 
unused  to  the  pen,  have  got  at  my 
command. 


92 


Statement  of  Cassius  P.  Kennedy, 
formerly  of  Necropolis  City,  Ohio, 
now  Manager  of  the  London  Branch 
of  the  Colonial  Box,  Tub,  and  Cord 
age  Company  (Ltd.)  of  Chicago  and 
St.  Louis.  :::::::::: 


93 


Statement  of  Cassius  P.  Kennedy, 
formerly  of  Necropolis  City,  Ohio, 
now  Manager  of  the  London  Branch 
of  the  Colonial  Box,  Tub,  and  Cord 
age  Company  (Ltd.)  of  Chicago  and 
St.  Louis.  :::::::::: 

WE  HAD  been  in  London  two 
years  when  a  series  of  ex 
traordinary  events  took  place  which 
involved  us,  through  no  fault  of  our 
own,  in  the  most  unpleasant  predica 
ment  that  ever  overtook  two  honest, 
respectable  Americans  in  a  foreign 
country. 

I  had  been  sent  over  to  start  the 
English  branch  of  the  Colonial  Box, 
Tub,  and  Cordage  Company,  one  of 
the  biggest  concerns  of  the  Middle 
West,  and  it  wasn't  two  months  be 
fore  I  realized  that  the  venture  was 
going  to  catch  on,  and  I  was  going 
95 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

to  be  at  the  head  of  a  booming  busi 
ness.  I'd  brought  my  wife  and  little 
girl  along  with  me.  We'd  been  mar 
ried  five  years — met  in  Necropolis 
City,  and  lived  there  and  afterward 
in  Chicago,  where  I  got  my  first  big 
promotion.  She  was  Daisy  K.  Fair- 
weather,  of  Buncumville,  Indiana, 
and  had  been  the  belle  of  the  place. 
She'd  also  attracted  considerable  at 
tention  in  St.  Louis  and  Kansas  City, 
where  she'd  visited  round  a  good 
deal.  There  was  nothing  green  about 
Daisy  K.  Fairweather — never  had 
been. 

Daisy  and  I  didn't  know  many 
people  when  we  first  came  over,  but 
that  little  woman  wasn't  here  six 
months  before  she'd  sized  up  the 
situation,  and  made  up  her  mind 
just  how  and  where  she  was  going 
96 


DIAMOND  CASE 

to  butt  in.  The  first  thing  she  did 
was  to  conform  to  those  particular 
ones  among  the  local  customs  that 
seemed  to  her  the  most  high-toned. 
In  Chicago  we'd  always  dined  at 
half-past  six,  and  given  the  hired 
girls  every  Thursday  off.  In  Lon 
don  we  dined  the  first  year  at  half- 
past  seven,  and  the  second  at  half- 
past  eight.  We  had  four  servants 
and  a  butler  called  Perkins,  who  ran 
everything  in  sight — myself  includ 
ed.  I  always  dressed  for  dinner 
after  Perkins  came,  and  tried  to 
look  as  if  it  was  my  lifelong  custom. 
I'd  have  sunk  out  of  sight  in  a  sea 
of  shame  rather  than  have  had  Per 
kins  think  I  had  not  been  brought 
up  to  it. 

Daisy  caught  on  to  everything,  and 
then  passed  the  word  on  to  me.    She 
97 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

was  always  springing  innovations  on 
me,  and  I  did  the  best  I  could  to  keep 
my  end  up.  She  stopped  talking  the 
way  she  used  to  in  Necropolis  City, 
and  made  Elaine — that's  our  little 
girl — quit  calling  me  " Popper"  and 
call  me  " Daddy."  She  called  her 
front  hair  her ' '  fringe ' '  and  her  shirt 
waist  her  "bloos,"  and  she  made  me 
careful  of  what  I  said  before  the  ser 
vants.  "  Servants  talk  so!"  she'd 
say,  just  as  if  she'd  heard  them.  In 
Necropolis  City,  or  even  Chicago, 
we  never  bothered  about  the  "help" 
talking.  They  said  what  they  want 
ed  and  we  said  what  we  wanted,  and 
that  was  all  there  was  to  it.  But  I 
supposed  it  was  all  right.  Whatever 
Daisy  K.  Fairweather  Kennedy  says 
goes  with  me. 

By    the    second    season    Daisy 'd 
98 


DIAMOND  CASE 

broken  quite  a  way  into  society,  and 
knew  a  bishop  and  two  lords.  We 
were  asked  out  a  good  deal,  and  we'd 
some  worthy  little  dinners  at  our 
own  shack — 15  Farley  Street,  near 
Walworth  Crescent,  a  thirty-five 
foot,  four-story,  high-stooped  edifice 
that  we  paid  the  same  rent  for  you'd 
pay  for  a  seven-room  flat  in  Chicago. 
Daisy  by  this  time  was  in  with  all 
kinds  of  push.  She  was  what  she 
called  a  " success."  Nights  when  we 
didn't  go  out  she'd  sit  with  me  and 
say: 

"Well,  I  don't  really  see  how  I'll 
ever  be  able  to  live  in  Chicago  again, 
and  Necropolis  City  would  certainly 
kill  me." 

This  same  season  Lady  Sara  Gyves 
dined  with  us  twice  (it  was  a  great 
step,  Daisy  said,  and  I  took  it  for 
99 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

granted  she  knew),  and  once  at  a  re 
ception  Daisy  stood  right  up  close  to 
the  Marchioness  of  Castlecourt,  the 
greatest  beauty  in  London,  and 
watched  her  drink  a  cup  of  tea. 
Daisy  didn't  meet  her  that  time,  but 
she  said  to  me : 

"Next  season  I'll  know  her,  and 
the  season  after  that,  if  we're  care 
ful,  I'll  dine  with  her.  Then,  Cas- 
sius  P.  Kennedy,  we  will  have  ar 
rived!" 

I  said  "Sure!"  That's  what  I 
mostly  say  to  her,  because  she's4 
mostly  right.  You  don't  often  find 
that  little  woman  making  breaks. 

It  was  in  our  third  season  in  Lon 
don,  the  time  the  middle  of  May, 
when  the  things  occurred  of  which 
I  have  made  mention  at  the  begin- 
100 


DIAMOND  CASE 

ning  of  my  statement.    It  was  this 
way: 

We'd  been  going  out  a  good  deal, 
pretty  nearly  every  night,  and  we 
were  glad  to  have,  for  once,  a  quiet 
evening  at  home.  Of  course,  that 
doesn't  mean  the  same  as  it  does  in 
Necropolis  City  or  even  Chicago. 
We  dine,  just  the  same,  at  half-past 
eight,  and  both  of  us  dress  for  din 
ner.  We  have  to,  Daisy  says,  no 
matter  how  we  feel,  because  of  the 
servants.  The  servants  in  London 
are  good  servants  all  right,  but  the 
way  you  have  to  avoid  shocking  their 
sensitive  feelings  sometimes  makes 
a  free-born  American  rebellious.  I 
like  to  think  I'm  an  object  of  inter 
est  to  my  fellow  creatures,  but  it's 
a  good  deal  of  a  bother  to  have  it  on 
your  mind  that  you  mustn't  destroy 
101 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

the  illusions  of  the  butler  or  upset 
the  ideals  of  the  cook. 

As  we  were  waiting  for  dinner  to 
be  announced  we  heard  a  cab  rattle 
up  and  stop,  as  it  seemed,  at  our 
door.  We  looked  at  each  other  with 
inquiring  eyes,  and  then  heard  the 
cab  go  off — on  the  full  jump,  I 
should  say,  by  the  noise  it  made — 
and  a  minute  later  the  bell  rang 
sharp  and  quick.  Perkins  opened 
the  door,  and  Daisy  and  I  heard  a 
lady's  voice,  very  sweet  and  sort  of 
drawling,  say  something  in  the  ves 
tibule.  I  peeped  through  the  cur 
tains,  and  there  were  a  man  and 
a  woman — a  distinguished  -  looking 
pair — taking  off  their  coats  and 
primping  themselves  up  at  the  hall 
mirror.  I'd  never  seen  either  of 
them  before,  as  far  as  I  could  re- 
102 


DIAMOND  CASE 

member,  but  I  could  tell  by  their 
general  make-up  that  they  were  the 
real  thing — the  kind  Daisy  was  al 
ways  cultivating  and  asking  to  din 
ner. 

I  stepped  back,  and  said  to  her,  in 
a  whisper: 

"Somebody's  come  to  dinner,  and 
you've  forgotten  all  about  it." 

She  shook  her  head,  and  whispered 
back: 

"I  haven't  asked  any  one  to  din 
ner;  I'm  sure  I  haven't." 

"Well,  they're  here,  whether  we've 
asked  them  or  not,"  I  hissed,  "and 
you  can't  turn  'em  out.  They  expect 
to  be  fed." 

"Who  are  they?" 

"Search  me!  Friends  of  your's 
I've  never  seen." 

"For  pity's  sake,  don't  look  sur- 
103 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

prised!     Try   and   pretend   it's   all 
right. " 

We  lined  up  by  the  fireplace,  and 
got  our  smiles  all  ready.  The  por 
tiere  was  drawn,  and  Perkins  an 
nounced  : 

" Major  and  Mrs.  Thatcher." 
They  sailed  smilingly  into  the 
room,  the  woman  ahead,  rustling  in 
a  long,  sparkly,  black  dress.  To  my 
certain  knowledge,  I'd  never  seen 
either  of  them  before.  The  woman 
was  very  pretty;  not  pretty  in  the 
sense  that  Daisy  is,  with  beautiful 
features  and  a  perfect  complexion, 
but  slim,  and  pale,  and  aristocratic- 
looking.  She  had  black  hair  with  a 
little  wreath  of  red  flowers  in  it, 
and  the  whitest  neck  I  ever  saw.  She 
evidently  thought  she  was  all  right 
as  far  as  herself  and  the  house  and 
104 


DIAMOND  CASE 

the  dinner  were  concerned,  for  she 
was  perfectly  serene,  and  easy  as 
an  old  shoe.  The  man  behind  her 
was  a  big,  handsome,  dense  chap — 
just  home  from  India,  they  said, 
and  he  looked  it.  He'd  that  dull 
way  those  dead  swell  army  fellows 
sometimes  have;  it  goes  with  a  long 
mustache  and  an  eye-glass. 

I  looked  out  of  the  tail  of  my  eye 
at  Daisy,  and  I  knew  by  her  face 
she  couldn't  remember  either  of 
them.  But  they  were  the  genuine 
article,  and  she  wasn't  going  to  be 
feazed  by  any  situation  that  could 
boil  up  out  of  the  society  pool.  She 
was  just  as  easy  as  they  were.  She'd 
a  smile  on  her  face  like  a  child,  and 
she  said  the  little,  mild,  milky  things 
women  say  just  as  milkily  and  mild- 
105 


THE  CASTLECOUKT 

ly  as  tho  she  was  greeting  her  life 
long  friends. 

Well,  it  went  along  as  smoothly  as 
a  summer  sea.  They  located  them 
selves  as  Major  and  Mrs.  Thatcher, 
and  told  a  lot  about  their  life  and 
their  movements — all  of  which  I 
could  see  Daisy  greedily  gathering 
in.  I  didn't  know  whether  she  re 
membered  them  or  not,  but  I  didn't 
think  she  did,  she  was  so  careful 
about  alluding  to  places  where  she 
had  met  them.  They  seemed  to 
know  her  all  right — Mrs.  Thatcher, 
especially.  She'd  allude  to  smart 
houses  where  Daisy  had  been  asked, 
and  tony  people  that  were  getting 
to  be  friends  of  Daisy's.  She  seemed 
to  be  right  in  the  best  circles  herself. 
I  wouldn't  like  to  say  how  many 
times  she  mentioned  the  names  of 
106 


DIAMOND  CASE 

earls  and  lords;  one  of  them,  Baron 
— some  name  like  Fiddlesticks — she 
said  was  her  cousin. 

She  didn't  stay  long  after  dinner. 
I  don't  think  I  sat  ten  minutes  with 
the  major — and  it  was  a  dull  ten 
minutes,  and  no  mistake.  There  was 
nothing  light  and  airy  about  him. 
He  asked  me  about  Chicago  (which 
he  pronounced  "Chick-ago"),  and 
said  he  had  heard  there  was  good 
sport  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 
thought  of  going  there  to  hunt  the 
Great  Auk.  I  didn't  know  what  the 
Great  Auk  was,  and  I  asked  him.  He 
looked  blankly  at  me,  and  said  he  be 
lieved  a  "large  form  of  bird,"  which 
surprised  me,  as  I  had  an  idea  it  was 
a  preadamite  beast,  like  a  behemoth. 

I  was  glad  to  have  the  major  go, 
not  only  because  he  was  so  dull,  but 
107 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

because  I  was  so  dying  to  find  out 
from  Daisy  if  she'd  placed  them  and 
who  they  were.  They  were  hardly 
on  the  steps  and  the  front  door  shut 
on  them  before  I  was  back  in  the 
parlor. 

"Who  are  they,  for  heavens' 
sake?"  I  burst  out. 

She  shook  her  head,  laughing  a 
little,  and  looking  utterly  bewildered. 

"My  dear  boy,"  she  said,  "I 
haven't  the  least  idea.  It's  the  most 
extraordinary  thing  I  ever  knew." 

"Isn't  there  anything  about  them 
you  remember?  Didn't  they  say 
something  that  gave  you  a  clew?" 

"Not  a  word,  and  yet  they  seem  to 
know  me  so  well.  The  queerest 
thing  of  all  was  that,  when  you  were 
in  the  dining-room  with  the  man,  the 
woman,  in  the  most -confidential  tone, 
108 


DIAMOND  CASE 

began  to  ask  me  about  some  one 
called  Amelia.  It  was  too  dreadful ! 
I  hadn't  the  faintest  notion  what  she 
meant." 

"What  did  you  say?  I'll  lay  ten 
to  one  you  were  equal  to  it." 

"I  realized  it  was  desperate,  and, 
after  going  through  the  dinner  so 
creditably,  I  wasn't  going  to  break 
down  over  the  coffee.  She  said: 
4 How  about  poor  Amelia?'  I  knew 
by  that  'poor'  and  by  the  expression 
of  her  face  it  was  something  unusual 
and  queer.  I  thought  a  minute,  and 
then  looked  as  solemn  as  I  could,  and 
answered:  'Really,  the  subject  is  a 
very  painful  one  to  me.  I'd  rather 
not  talk  about  it.'  " 

We  both  roared.  It  was  so  like 
Daisy  to  be  ready  that  way ! 

"And  then — this  is  the  strangest 
109 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

part  of  all — she  put  her  hand  in  the 
front  of  her  dress  and  drew  out 
some  little  thing  of  chamois  leather, 
and  told  me  to  give  it  to  Amelia  from 
her.  I  tried  to  stop  her,  but  it  was 
too  late.  She  put  it  here  in  the  crys 
tal  bowl." 

Daisy  went  to  the  bowl,  and  took 
out  a  little  limp  sack  of  chamois 
leather. 

"It  feels  like  pebbles,"  she  said, 
pinching  it. 

And  then  she  opened  it  and  shook 
the  " pebbles"  into  her  hand.  I  bent 
down  to  look  at  them,  my  head  close 
to  hers.  The  palm  of  her  hand  was 
covered  with  small,  sparkling  crys 
tals  of  different  sizes  and  very 
bright.  We  looked  at  them,  and 
then  at  one  another.  They  were  dia 
monds  ! 

110 


DIAMOND  CASE 

For  a  moment  we  didn't  either  of 
us  say  anything.  Daisy  had  been 
laughing,  and  her  laugh  died  away 
into  a  sort  of  scared  giggle.  Her 
hand  began  to  shake  a  little,  and  it 
made  the  diamonds  send  out  gleams 
in  all  directions. 

"What  —  what  —  does  it  mean?" 
she  said,  in  a  low  sort  of  gasp. 

I  just  looked  at  them  and  shook 
my  head.  But  I  felt  a  cold  sinking  in 
that  part  of  my  organism  where  my 
courage  is  usually  screwed  to  the 
sticking-place. 

"Are  they  real,  do  you  think?" 
she  said  again,  and  she  took  the  eve 
ning  paper  and  poured  them  out 
on  it. 

Spread  out  that  way,  they  looked 
most  awfully  numerous  and  rich. 
There  must  have  been  more  than  a 
111 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

hundred  of  them  of  different  sizes, 
and  shaking  around  on  the  surface 
of  the  paper  made  them  shine  and 
sparkle  like  stars. 

" It's  a  fortune,  Cassius,"  she  said, 
almost  in  a  whisper;  "it's  a  fortune 
in  diamonds.  Why  did  she  leave 
them?" 

"Didn't  she  say  they  were  for 
Amelia?"  I  said,  in  a  hollow  tone. 

"Yes;  but  who  is  Amelia?  How 
will  we  ever  find  her?  What  shall 
we  do?  It's  too  awful!" 

We  stood  opposite  one  another 
with  the  paper  between  us,  and  tried 
to  think.  In  the  lamplight  the  dia 
monds  winked  at  us  with  what 
seemed  human  malice.  I  turned 
round  and  picked  up  the  bag  they 
had  come  from,  looked  vaguely  into 
it,  and  shook  it.  A  last  stone  fell  out 
112 


DIAMOND  CASE 

on  the  paper,  quite  a  large  one,  and 
added  itself  to  the  pile. 

"Why  did  she  leave  them  here?" 
Daisy  moaned.  "What  did  she 
bother  us  for?  Why  didn't  she  take 
them  to  Amelia  herself  ?" 

"Because  she  was  afraid,"  I  said, 
in  the  undertone  of  melodrama. 
"They're  stolen,  Daisy." 

I  had  voiced  the  fear  in  both  our 
hearts.  We  sat  down  opposite  one 
another  on  either  side  of  the  table, 
with  the  newspaper  full  of  diamonds 
between  us.  I  don't  know  whether 
I  was  as  pale  as  Daisy,  but  I  felt 
quite  as  bad  as  she  looked.  And  sit 
ting  thus,  each  staring  into  the 
other's  scared  face,  we  ran  over  the 
events  of  the  evening. 

We  couldn't  make  much  of  it;  it 
was  too  uncanny.  But  from  the  first 
113 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

we  both  decided  we'd  felt  something 
to  be  wrong.  Why  or  how  they'd 
come?  who  they  were?  what  they 
wanted? — we  couldn't  answer  a  sin 
gle  question.  We  were  in  a  maze. 
The  only  thing  that  seemed  certain 
was  that  they  had  one  hundred  and 
fifty  diamonds  of  varying  sizes  that 
they  had  wanted,  for  some  reason,  to 
get  rid  of,  and  they'd  got  rid  of  them 
to  us.  And  so  we  talked  and  talked 
till,  by  slow  degrees,  we  got  to  the 
point  where  suddenly,  with  a  simul 
taneous  start,  we  looked  at  one  an 
other,  and  breathed  out: 
"The  Castlecourt  diamonds!" 
We  had  read  it  all  in  the  papers, 
and  we  had  talked  it  over,  and  here 
we  were  with  a  pile  of  gems  in  a 
newspaper  that  might  be  the  very 
stones. 

114 


DIAMOND  CASE 

"And  next  year  I'd  hoped  to  know 
Lady  Castlecourt.  I'd  been  sure  I 
would !"  Daisy  wailed.  "And 


now — " 


"But  you  haven't  stolen  the  dia 
monds,  dearest,"  I  said,  soothingly. 
"You  needn't  get  in  a  fever  about 
that." 

"But,  good  heavens,  I  might  just 
as  well!  Do  you  suppose  there's  any 
one  in  the  world  fool  enough  to  be 
lieve  the  story  of  what  happened 
here  to-night?  People  say  it's  hard 
to  believe  everything  in  the  Bible! 
Why,  Jonah  and  the  whale  is  a  sim 
ple  every-day  affair  compared  to 
it!" 

It    did   look    bad;    the    more    we 

talked  of  it  the  worse  it  looked.    We 

didn't  sleep  all  night,  and  when  the 

dawn  was  coming  through  the  blinds 

115 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

we  were  still  talking,  trying  to  de 
cide  what  to  do.  At  breakfast  we  sat 
like  two  graven  images,  not  eating  a 
thing,  and  all  that  day  in  the  office 
I  found  it  impossible  to  concentrate 
my  mind,  but  sat  thinking  of  what 
on  earth  we'd  do  with  those  darned 
diamonds. 

I'd  suggested,  the  first  thing,  to  go 
and  give  them  up  at  the  nearest  po 
lice  station.  But  Daisy  wouldn't 
hear  of  that.  She  said  that  no  one 
would  believe  a  word  of  our  story — 
it  was  too  impossible.  And  when  I 
came  to  think  of  it  I  must  say  I 
agreed  with  her.  I  saw  myself  tell 
ing  that  story  in  a  court  of  justice, 
and  I  realized  that  a  look  of  con 
scious  guilt  would  be  painted  on  my 
face  the  whole  time.  I'd  have  felt, 
whether  it  was  true  or  not,  that  no- 
116 


DIAMOND  CASE 

body  really  ought  to  believe  it,  and 
as  an  honest,  self-respecting  citizen 
I  ought  not  to  expect  them  to.  Here 
we  were,  strangers  that  nobody  knew 
a  thing  about,  anyway!  Daisy  said 
they'd  take  us  for  accomplices;  and 
when  I  said  to  her  we'd  be  a  pretty 
rank  pair  of  accomplices  to  give  up 
the  swag  without  a  struggle,  she 
said  they'd  think  we  got  scared,  and 
decided  to  do  what  she  calls  "turn 
State's  evidence." 

She  thought  the  best  thing  to  do 
was  to  keep  the  stones  till  we  could 
think  up  a  more  plausible  story. 
We  tried  to  do  that,  and  the  night 
after  our  meeting  with  Major  and 
Mrs.  Thatcher  we  stayed  awake 
till  three,  thinking  up  "plausible 
stories."  We  got  a  great  collection 
of  them,  but  it  seemed  impossible  to 
117 


THE  CASTLBCOURT 

get  a  good  one  without  implicating 
somebody.  I  invented  a  corker,  but 
it  cast  a  dark  suspicion  on  Daisy; 
and  she  had  an  even  better  one,  but 
it  would  have  undoubtedly  resulted 
in  the  arrest  of  Perkins  and  the 
housemaid,  and  possibly  myself. 

It  was  a  horrible  situation.  Even 
if  we  could  possibly  have  escaped 
suspicion  ourselves,  it  would  have 
ruined  us  socially  and  financially. 
Would  the  Colonial  Box,  Tub,  and 
Cordage  Company  have  retained  as 
the  head  of  its  London  branch  a  man 
who  had  got  himself  mixed  up  with 
a  sensational  diamond  robbery?  Not 
on  your  life !  That  concern  demands 
a  high  standard  and  unspotted  rec 
ord  in  all  its  employees.  I'd  have 
got  the  sack  at  the  end  of  the  month. 

And  Daisy!  How  would  the  bish- 
118 


DIAMOND  CASE 

op  and  two  lords  have  felt  about 
it?  Had  no  more  use  for  that  little 
woman,  you  can  bet  your  bottom 
dollar!  Even  Lady  Sara  Gyves, 
who,  they  say,  will  go  anywhere 
to  get  a  dinner,  would  have  given 
her  the  Ice-house  Laugh.  I  know 
them.  And  I  saw  my  Daisy  sitting 
at  home  all  alone  on  her  reception 
day,  and  taking  dinner  with  me 
every  night.  No,  sir!  That  wouldn't 
happen  if  Cassius  P.  Kennedy  had 
to  take  those  diamonds  to  the 
Thames  and  throw  them  off  London 
Bridge  in  a  weighted  bag. 

So  there  we  were !  It  was  a  dread 
ful  predicament.  Every  morning 
we  read  the  papers  with  our  hearts 
thumping  like  hammers.  Every 
ring  at  the  bell  made  us  jump,  and 
we  had  a  deadly  fear  that  each  time 
119 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

the  portiere  was  lifted  and  a  caller 
appeared  we'd  see  the  buttons  and 
helmet  of  a  policeman  with  a  war 
rant  of  arrest  concealed  upon  his 
person.  I  began  to  have  awful 
dreams  and  Daisy  didn't  sleep  at  all, 
and  got  pale  and  peaked.  We 
thought  up  more  " plausible  stories," 
but  they  seemed  to  get  less  probable 
every  time,  and  all  our  spare  mo 
ments  together,  which  used  to  be  so 
happy  and  care  free,  were  now  dark 
and  harassed  as  the  meetings  of  con 
spirators. 

Even  concealing  the  miserable 
things  was  a  wearing  anxiety.  First 
we  decided  to  divide  them,  Daisy  to 
wear  her  half  in  the  chamois  bag 
hung  around  her  neck,  while  I  con 
cealed  mine  in  a  money-belt  worn 
under  my  clothes.  We  had  about  de- 
120 


DIAMOND  CASE 

cided  on  that  and  I'd  bought  the 
belt,  when  we  got  the  idea  that  if  we 
were  killed  in  an  accident  they'd  be 
found  on  us,  and  then  our  memoirs 
would  go  down  to  posterity  black 
ened  with  shame.  So  we  just  put 
them  back  in  the  bag  and  locked 
them  up  in  Daisy's  jewel-case,  round 
which  we  hovered  as  they  say  a 
murderer  does  round  the  hiding- 
place  of  his  victim. 

I  never  knew  before  how  burglars 
felt;  but  if  it  was  anything  like  the 
way  Daisy  and  I  did,  I  wonder 
anybody  ever  takes  to  that  perilous 
trade.  We  were  the  most  unhappy 
creatures  in  London,  feeling  our 
selves  a  pair  of  thieves,  and  our  un 
polluted,  innoceent  home  no  better 
than  a  " fence."  There  was  less  in 
the  papers  about  the  Castlecourt 
121 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

diamonds  robbery,  but  that  did  not 
give  us  any  peace;  for,  in  the  first 
place,  we  didn't  know  for  certain 
that  we  had  the  Castlecourt  dia 
monds,  and,  in  the  second,  when  we 
now  and  then  did  see  dark  allusions 
to  the  sleuths  being  "on  a  new  and 
more  promising  scent,"  we  modestly 
supposed  that  we  might  be  the  quar 
ry  to  which  it  led.  Daisy  began  to 
talk  of  " going  to  prison"  as  a  ter 
mination  of  her  career  that  might 
not  be  so  far  distant,  and  to  the 
thought  of  which  she  was  growing 
reconciled. 

This  about  covers  the  ground  of 
my  immediate  connection  with  the 
stolen  diamonds.  Their  subsequent 
disposition  is  a  matter  in  which  my 
wife  is  more  concerned  than  I  am. 
She  also  will  be  able  to  tell  her  part 
122 


DIAMOND  CASE 

of  the  story  with  more  literary  frills 
than  I  can  muster  up.  I'm  no  writ 
ing  man,  and  all  I've  tried  to  do  is  to 
state  my  part  of  the  affair  honestly 
and  clearly. 


123 


Statement  of  John  Burns  Gilsey,  pri 
vate  detective,  especially  engaged  on 
the  Castlecourt  diamond  case.  :  : 


Statement  of  John  Burns  Gilsey,  pri 
vate  detective,  especially  engaged  on 
the  Castlecourt  diamond  case.  :  : 

AT  A  quarter  before  eight  on  the 
evening  of  May  fourth  a  tele 
phone  message  was  sent  to  Scot 
land  Yard  that  a  diamond  necklace, 
the  property  of  the  Marquis  of  Cas 
tlecourt,  had  been  stolen  from  Bur- 
ridge's  Hotel.  Brison,  one  of  the 
best  of  their  men,  was  detailed  upon 
the  case,  and  three  days  later  my 
services  were  engaged  by  the  mar 
quis.  After  investigations  which 
have  occupied  several  weeks,  I  have 
become  convinced  that  the  case  is  an 
unusual  and  complicated  one.  The 
reasons  which  have  led  me  to  this 
conclusion  I  will  now  set  down  as 
briefly  and  clearly  as  possible. 
127 


THE  CASTLECOUET 

As  has  already  been  stated  in  the 
papers,  the  diamonds,  on  the  after 
noon  of  the  robbery,  were  standing 
in  a  leather  jewel-case  on  the  bureau 
in  Lady  Castlecourt's  apartment. 
To  this  room  access  was  obtained  by 
three  doors — that  which  led  into 
Lord  Castlecourt's  room,  that  which 
led  into  the  sitting-room,  and  that 
which  led  into  the  hall. 

Lord  Castlecourt's  valet,  James 
Chawlmers,  and  Lady  Castlecourt's 
maid,  Sophy  Jeffers,  had  been  occu 
pied  in  this  suite  of  apartments 
throughout  the  afternoon.  At  six 
Jeffers  had  laid  out  her  ladyship's 
clothes,  taken  the  diamonds  from  the 
metal  despatch-box  in  which  they 
were  usually  carried,  and  set  them 
on  the  bureau.  She  had  then  with 
drawn  into  the  sitting-room  with 
128 


DIAMOND  CASE 

Chawlmers,  where  they  had  re 
mained  for  half  an  hour  talking. 
During  this  period  of  time  Jeffers 
deposes  that  she  heard  the  rustle  of 
a  skirt  in  the  sitting-room,  and  went 
to  the  door  to  see  if  any  one  had 
entered.  No  one  was  to  be  seen.  She 
returned  to  the  sitting-room,  and  re 
sumed  her  conversation  with  Chawl 
mers.  It  is  the  general  supposition 
— and  it  would  appear  to  be  the 
reasonable  one — that  the  diamonds 
were  then  taken.  According  to  Jef- 
fers,  they  were  in  the  case  at  six 
o'clock,  and  on  the  testimony  of 
Lord  and  Lady  Castlecourt  they 
were  gone  at  half-past  seven.  The 
person  toward  whom  suspicion 
points  is  a  housemaid,  going  by  the 
name  of  'Sara  D wight,  who  had  a 
pass-key  to  the  apartment. 
129 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

The  suspicions  of  Sara  D  wight 
were  strengthened  by  her  actions. 
At  quarter  past  seven  that  evening 
she  left  the  hotel  without  giving 
warning,  and  carrying  no  further 
baggage  than  a  small  portmanteau. 
Upon  examination  of  her  room,  it 
was  discovered  that  she  had  left  a 
gown  hanging  on  the  pegs,  and  her 
box,  which  contained  a  few  articles  of 
coarse  underclothing  and  a  wadded 
cotton  quilt.  She  had  been  uncom 
municative  with  the  other  servants, 
but  had  had  much  conversation  with 
Sophy  Jeffers,  who  described  her  as 
a  brisk,  civil-spoken  girl,  whose  man 
ner  of  speech  was  above  her  station. 

The  natural  suspicions  evoked  by 

her  behavior  were  intensified  in  the 

mind  of  Brison  by  the  information 

that  the  celebrated  crook  Laura  the 

130 


DIAMOND  CASE 

Lady  had  returned  to  London.  I 
myself  had  seen  the  woman  at  Earls- 
court,  and  told  Brison  of  the  occur 
rence.  It  had  appeared  to  Brison 
that  Jeffers'  description  of  the 
housemaid  had  many  points  of  re 
semblance  with  Laura  the  Lady.  The 
theft  reminded  us  both  of  the  affair 
of  the  Comtesse  de  Chateaugay's  ru 
bies,  when  this  particular  thief,  who 
speaks  French  as  well  as  she  does 
English,  was  supposed  to  have  been 
the  moving  spirit  in  one  of  the  most 
daring  jewel  robberies  of  our  time. 

Brison,  confident  that  Sara  Dwight 
and  Laura  the  Lady  were  one  and 
the  same,  concentrated  his  powers  in 
an  effort  to  find  her.  He  was  suc 
cessful  to  the  extent  of  locating  a 
woman  closely  resembling  Laura  the 
Lady  living  quietly  in  a  furnished 
131 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

flat  in  Knightsbridge  with  a  man 
who  passed  as  her  husband.  He 
discovered  that  this  couple  had  left 
for  a  " business  trip"  on  the  Conti 
nent  shortly  before  Sara  D wight's 
appearance  at  Burridge's,  and  had 
returned  shortly  after  her  depar 
ture  therefrom. 

He  regarded  the  pair  and  their 
movements  as  of  sufficient  impor 
tance  to  be  watched,  and  for  a  week 
after  their  return  from  the  Conti 
nent  had  the  flat  shadowed.  One 
foggy  night,  while  he  himself  was 
watching  the  place,  the  man  and 
woman  came  out  in  evening  dress, 
and  took  a  hansom  that  was  waiting 
for  them.  Brison  followed  them, 
and  the  fog  being  dense  and  their 
horse  fresh,  lost  them  in  the  maze  of 
streets  about  Walworth  Crescent. 
132 


DIAMOND  CASE 

He  is  positive  that  the  occupants  of 
the  cab  realized  they  were  followed 
and  attempted  to  escape.  He  as 
sures  me  that  he  saw  the  driver 
turn  several  times  and  look  at  his 
hansom,  and  then  lash  his  horse  to 
a  desperate  speed. 

One  of  the  points  in  this  nocturnal 
pursuit  that  he  thinks  most  note 
worthy  is  the  manner  in  which  the 
occupants  of  the  cab  disappeared. 
After  keeping  it  well  in  sight  for 
over  half  an  hour,  he  lost  it  com 
pletely  and  suddenly  in  the  short 
street  that  runs  from  Walworth 
Crescent,  north,  into  Farley  Street; 
ten  minutes  later  he  is  under  the 
impression  that  he  sighted  it  again 
near  the  Hyde  Park  Hotel.  But  if 
it  was  the  same  cab  it  was  empty, 
and  the  driver  was  looking  for  fares. 
133 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

For  some  hours  after  this  Brison 
patrolled  the  streets  in  the  neigh 
borhood,  but  could  find  no  trace  of 
the  suspected  pair.  It  was  mid 
night  when  he  returned  to  his  sur 
veillance  of  the  flat.  The  next  morn 
ing  he  heard  that  its  occupants  had 
left.  A  search-warrant  revealed  the 
fact  that  they  had  gone  with  such 
haste  that  they  had  left  many  ar 
ticles  of  dress,  etc.,  behind  them. 
There  was  every  evidence  of  a  hur 
ried  flight. 

All  this  was  so  much  clear  proof, 
in  Brison 's  opinion,  of  the  guilt  of 
Sara  Dwight.  Upon  this  hypothesis 
he  is  working,  and  I  have  not  dis 
turbed  his  confidence  in  the  integ 
rity  of  his  efforts.  The  result  of  my 
investigations,  which  I  have  been 
quietly  and  systematically  pursuing 
134 


DIAMOND  CASE 

for  the  last  three  weeks,  has  led  me 
to  a  different  and  much  more  sensa 
tional  conclusion.  That  Sara  Dwight 
may  have  taken  the  diamonds  I  do 
not  deny.  But  she  was  merely  an 
accomplice  in  the  hands  of  another. 
The  real  thief,  in  my  opinion,  is 
Gladys,  Marchioness  of  Castlecourt! 

My  reasons  for  holding  this  theory 
are  based  upon  observations  taken  at 
the  time,  upon  my  large  and  varied 
experince  in  such  cases,  and  upon 
information  that  I  have  been  col 
lecting  since  the  occurrence.  Let  me 
briefly  state  the  result  of  my  deduc 
tions  and  researches. 

Lady  Castlecourt,  who  was  the 
daughter  of  a  penniless  Irish  clergy 
man,  was  a  young  girl  of  great 
beauty  brought  up  in  the  direst  pov 
erty.  Her  marriage  with  the  Mar- 
135 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

quis  of  Castlecourt,  which  took  place 
seven  years  ago  this  spring,  lifted 
her  into  a  position  of  social  promi 
nence  and  financial  ease.  Society 
made  much  of  her;  she  became  one 
of  its  most  brilliant  ornaments.  Her 
husband's  infatuation  was  well 
known.  During  the  first  years  of 
their  marriage  he  could  refuse  her 
nothing,  and  he  stinted  himself — 
for,  tho  well  off,  Lord  Castlecourt  is 
by  no  means  a  millionaire  peer — in 
order  to  satisfy  her  whims.  The  lady 
very  quickly  developed  great  ex 
travagances.  She  became  known  as 
one  of  the  most  expensively  dressed 
women  in  London.  It  had  been 
mentioned  in  certain  society  jour 
nals  that  Lord  Castlecourt 's  reve 
nues  had  been  so  reduced  by  his 
wife's  extravagance  that  he  had  been 
136 


DIAMOND  CASE 

forced  to  rent  his  town  house  in 
Grosvenor  Gate,  and  for  two  seasons 
take  rooms  in  Burridge's  Hotel. 

This  is  a  simple  statement  of  cer 
tain  tendencies  of  the  lady.  Now  let 
me  state,  with  more  detail,  how  these 
tendencies  developed  and  to  what 
they  led. 

I  will  admit  here,  before  I  go 
further,  that  my  suspicions  of  Lady 
Castlecourt  were  aroused  from  the 
first.  It  was,  perhaps,  with  a  pre 
disposed  mind  that  I  began  those  ex 
plorations  into  her  life  during  the 
past  five  years  which  have  convinced 
me  that  she  was  the  moving  spirit 
in  this  theft  of  the  diamonds. 

For   the   first   two   years    of   her 

married  life  Lady  Castlecourt  lived 

most  of  the  time  on  the  estate  of 

Castlecourt  Marsh  Manor.     During 

137 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

this  period  she  became  the  mother 
of  two  sons,  and  it  was  after  the 
birth  of  the  second  that  she  went  to 
London  and  spent  her  first  season 
there  since  her  marriage.  She  was 
in  blooming  health,  and  even  more 
beautiful  that  she  had  been  in  her 
girlhood.  She  became  the  fashion: 
no  gathering  was  complete  without 
her;  her  costumes  were  described  in 
the  papers;  royalty  admired  her. 

I  have  discovered  that  at  this  time 
her  husband  gave  her  six  hundred 
pounds  per  annum  for  a  dressing 
allowance.  During  the  first  two 
years  of  her  married  life  she  lived 
within  this.  But  after  that  she  ex 
ceeded  it  to  the  extent  of  hundreds, 
and  finally  thousands,  of  pounds. 
The  fifth  year  after  her  marriage  she 
was  in  debt  three  thousand  pounds, 
138 


DIAMOND  CASE 

her  creditors  being  dressmakers,  fur 
riers,  jewelers,  and  milliners  in  Lon 
don  and  Paris.  She  made  no  attempt 
to  pay  these  debts,  and  the  trades 
men,  knowing  her  high  social  posi 
tion  and  her  husband's  rigid  sense  of 
pecuniary  obligations,  did  not  press 
her,  and  she  went  on  spending  with 
an  unstinted  hand. 

It  was  last  year  that  she  finally 
precipitated  the  catastrophe  by  the 
purchase  of  a  coat  of  Russian  sable 
for  the  sum  of  one  thousand  pounds, 
and  a  set  of  turquoise  ornaments 
valued  at  half  that  amount.  Each 
of  these  purchases  was  made  in 
Paris.  The  two  creditors,  having 
been  already  warned  of  her  disin 
clination  to  meet  her  bills,  had,  it  is 
said,  laid  wagers  with  other  firms  to 
which  she  was  deeply  in  debt,  that 
139 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

they  would  extract  the  money  from 
her  within  the  year. 

It  was  in  the  summer  of  the  past 
year  that  Lady  Castlecourt  was  first 
threatened  by  Bolkonsky,  the  fur 
rier,  with  law  proceedings.  In  the 
end  of  September  she  went  to  Paris 
and  visited  the  man  in  his  own 
offices,  and — I  have  it  from  an  eye 
witness — exhibited  the  greatest  trep 
idation  and  alarm,  finally  begging, 
with  tears,  for  an  extension  of  a 
month's  time.  To  this  Bolkonsky 
consented,  warning  her  that,  at  the 
end  of  that  time,  if  his  account  was 
not  settled,  he  would  acquaint  his 
lordship  with  the  situation  and  in 
stitute  legal  proceedings. 

Before  the  month  was  up — that 
was  in  October  of  the  past  year — his 
account  was  paid  in  full  by  Lady 
140 


DIAMOND  CASE 

Castlecourt  herself.  At  the  same 
time  other  accounts  in  Paris  and 
London  were  entirely  settled  or  com 
promised.  I  find  that,  during  the 
months  of  October  and  November, 
Lady  Castlecourt  paid  off  debts 
amounting  to  nearly  four  thousand 
pounds.  In  most  instances  she  set 
tled  them  personally,  paying  them  in 
bank-notes.  A  few  claims  were  paid 
by  check.  I  have  it  from  those  with 
whom  she  transacted  these  monetary 
dealings  that  she  seemed  greatly  re 
lieved  to  be  able  to  discharge  her 
obligations,  and  that  in  all  cases  she 
requested  silence  on  the  subject  as 
the  price  of  her  future  patronage. 

I  now  come  to  a  feature  of  the 

case  that  I  admit  greatly  puzzles  me. 

Lady  Castlecourt  was  still  wearing 

the  diamonds  when  this  large  sum 

141 


THE  CASTLECOUET 

was  disbursed  by  her.  As  far  as  can 
be  ascertained,  she  had  made  no  ef 
fort  to  sell  them,  and  I  can  find  no 
trace  of  a  frustrated  attempt  to 
steal  them.  She  had  suddenly  be 
come  possessed  of  four  thousand 
pounds  without  the  aid  of  the  dia 
monds.  They  were  not  called  into 
requisition  till  nearly  six  months 
later. 

The  natural  supposition  would  be 
that  "some  one" — an  unknown  do 
nor  —  had  put  up  the  four  thousand 
pounds;  in  fact,  that  Lady  Castle- 
court  had  a  lover,  to  whom,  in  a 
desperate  extremity,  she  had  ap 
pealed.  But  the  most  thorough  ex 
amination  of  her  past  life  reveals 
no  hint  of  such  a  thing.  Frivolous 
and  extravagant  as  she  undoubtedly 
was,  she  seems  to  have  been,  as  far 
142 


DIAMOND  CASE 

as  her  personal  conduct  goes,  a  moral 
and  virtuous  lady.  Her  name  has 
been  associated  with  no  man's,  either 
in  a  foolish  flirtation  or  a  scandal 
ous  and  compromising  intrigue;  in 
fact,  her  devotion  to  Lord  Castle- 
court  appears  to  have  been  of  an 
absolutely  genuine  and  sincere  kind. 
While  she  did  not  scruple  to  deceive 
him  as  to  her  pecuniary  dealings,  she 
unquestionably  seems  to  have  been 
perfectly  upright  and  honest  in  the 
matter  of  marital  fidelity. 

Where,  then,  did  Lady  Castlecourt 
secure  this  large  sum  of  money  ?  My 
reading  of  the  situation  is  briefly 
this: 

Her  creditors  becoming  rebellious 
and  Lady  Castlecourt  becoming  ter 
rified,  she  appealed  to  some  woman 
friend  for  a  loan.  Who  this  is  I 
143 


THE  CASTLECOUET 

have  no  idea,  but  among  her  large 
circle  of  acquaintances  there  are 
several  ladies  of  sufficient  means  and 
sufficiently  intimate  with  Lady  Cas- 
tlecourt  to  have  been  able  to  advance 
the  required  sum.  This  was  done, 
as  I  have  shown  above,  in  the  month 
of  October,  when  Lady  Castlecourt 
was  in  Paris,  where  she  at  once  be 
gan  to  pay  off  her  debts.  After  this 
she  continued  wearing  the  diamonds, 
and,  in  my  opinion — such  is  her  shal- 
lowness  and  irresponsibility  of  char 
acter — forgot  the  obligations  of  the 
loan,  which  had  probably  been  made 
under  a  promise  of  speedy  repay 
ment,  either  in  full  or  in  part. 

It  was  then — this,  let  it  be  under 
stood,  is  all  surmise — that  Lady  Cas 
tlecourt 's  new  and  unknown  debtor 
began   to    press    for    a   repayment. 
144 


DIAMOND  CASE 

There  might  be  many  reasons  why 
this  should  so  closely  have  fol 
lowed  the  loan.  With  a  woman 
of  Lady  Castlecourt's  lax  and  un 
businesslike  methods,  unusual  con 
ditions  could  be  readily  exacted.  She 
is  of  the  class  of  persons  that,  under 
a  pressing  need  for  money,  would 
agree  to  any  conditions  and  imme 
diately  forget  them.  That  she  did 
agree  to  a  speedy  reimbursement  I 
am  positive;  that  once  again  she 
found  herself  confronted  by  an  angry 
and  threatening  creditor ;  and  that,  in 
desperation  and  with  the  assistance 
of  Sara  Dwight,  she  stole  the  dia 
monds,  intending  probably  to  pawn 
them,  is  the  conclusion  to  which  my 
experience  and  investigations  have 
led  me. 

How    she    came    to    select    Sara 
145 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

Dwight  as  an  accomplice  I  am  not 
qualified  to  state.  In  my  opinion, 
fear  of  detection  made  her  seek  the 
aid  of  a  confederate.  Sara's  flight, 
with  its  obviously  suspicious  sur 
roundings,  has  an  air  of  prearrange- 
ment  suggestive  of  having  been  care 
fully  planned  to  divert  suspicion  from 
the  real  criminal.  Sophy  Jeffers  as 
sured  me  that  Lady  Castlecourt  had 
never,  to  her  knowledge,  conversed 
at  any  length  with  the  housemaid. 
But  Jeffers  is  a  very  simple-minded 
person,  whom  it  would  be  an  easy 
matter  to  deceive.  That  Sara  Dwight 
was  her  ladyship's  accomplice  I  am 
positive;  that  she  took  the  jewels 
and  now  has  them  is  also  my  opin 
ion. 

Being  convinced  of  her  need  of 
ready  money,  and  of  the  rashness 
146 


DIAMOND  CASE 

and  lack  of  balance  in  her  character, 
I  have  been  expecting  that  Lady 
Castlecourt  would  make  some  de 
cisive  move  in  the  way  of  selling  the 
diamonds.  With  this  idea  agents  of 
mine  have  been  on  the  watch,  but 
without  so  far  finding  any  evidence 
that  she  has  attempted  to  place  the 
stones  on  the  market.  We  have 
found  no  traces  of  them  either  in 
London  or  Paris,  or  the  usual  depots 
in  Holland  or  Belgium.  It  is  true 
that  the  Castlecourt  diamonds,  not 
being  remarkable  for  size,  would  be 
easy  to  dispose  of  in  small,  separate 
lots,  but  our  system  of  surveillance 
is  so  thorough  that  I  do  not  see  how 
they  could  escape  us.  I  am  of  the 
opinion  that  the  stones  are  still  in 
the  hands  of  Sara  Dwight,  who, 
whether  she  is  an  accomplished  thief 
147 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

or  not,  is  probably  more  wary  and 
more  versed  in  such  dealings  than 
Lady  Castlecourt. 

That  her  ladyship  should  have 
been  the  object  of  my  suspicions 
from  the  start  may  seem  peculiar 
to  those  to  whom  she  appears  only 
as  a  person  of  rank,  wealth,  and 
beauty.  Before  the  case  came  under 
my  notice  at  all,  I  had  heard  her 
uncontrolled  extravagance  remarked 
upon,  and  that  alone,  coupled  with 
the  fact  that  Lord  Castlecourt  is 
not  a  peer  of  vast  wealth,  and  that 
the  lady's  moral  character  is  said 
to  be  unblemished,  would  naturally 
arouse  the  suspicion  of  one  used  to 
the  vagaries  and  intricacies  of  the 
evolution  of  crime. 

During  my  first  interview  with 
her  ladyship  I  watched  her  closely, 
148 


DIAMOND  CASE 

and  was  struck  by  her  pallor,  her 
impatience  under  questioning,  her 
hardly  concealed  nervousness,  and 
her  indignant  repudiation  of  the  sus 
picions  cast  upon  her  servants.  All 
the  domestics  in  her  employment 
agree  that  she  is  a  kind  and  gener 
ous  mistress,  and  it  would  be  par 
ticularly  galling  to  one  of  her  dis 
position  to  think  that  her  employees 
were  suffering  for  her  faults.  Her 
answers  to  many  of  my  questions  were 
vague  and  evasive,  and  to  both  Bri- 
son  and  myself,  at  two  different  times, 
she  suggested  the  possibility  of  the 
jewels  not  being  stolen  at  all,  but 
having  been  " mislaid."  Even  Bri- 
son,  whose  judgment  had  been  warp 
ed  by  her  beauty  and  rank,  was 
forced  to  admit  the  strangeness  of 
this  remark. 

149 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

The  description  given  me  by 
Sophy  Jeffers  of  her  ladyship's  de 
portment  when  the  theft  was  dis 
covered  still  further  strengthened 
my  suspicions.  Lady  Castlecourt's 
behavior  at  this  juncture  might  have 
passed  as  natural  by  those  not  used 
to  the  very  genuine  hysteria  which 
often  attacks  criminals.  That  she 
was  wrought  up  to  a  high  degree 
of  nervous  excitement  is  acknowl 
edged  by  all  who  saw  her.  It  is  al 
leged  by  Jeffers — quite  innocently 
of  any  intention  to  injure  her  mis 
tress,  to  whom  she  appears  devoted — 
that  her  ladyship's  first  emotion  on 
discovering  the  loss  was  a  fear  of  her 
husband;  that  when  he  entered  the 
room  she  instinctively  tried  to  con 
ceal  the  empty  jewel-case  behind  her, 
and  that  almost  her  first  words  to 
150 


DIAMOND  CASE 

him  were  assurances  that  she  had 
not  been  careless,  but  had  guarded 
the  jewels  well. 

Pear  of  Lord  Castlecourt  was  un 
doubtedly  the  most  prominent  feel 
ing  she  then  possessed,  and  it  showed 
itself  with  unrestrained  frankness 
in  the  various  ways  described  above. 
Afterward  she  attempted  to  be  more 
reticent,  and  adopted  an  air  of  what 
almost  appeared  indifference,  sur 
prising  not  only  myself  and  Brison, 
but  Jeffers,  by  her  remarks,  made 
with  irritated  impatience,  that  they 
still  might  "turn  up  somewhere," 
and  "that  she  did  not  see  how  we 
could  be  so  sure  they  were  stolen." 
This  change  of  attitude  was  even 
more  convincing  to  me  than  her 
former  exhibition  of  alarm.  The 
very  candor  and  childishness  with 
151 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

which  she  showed  her  varying  states 
of  mind  would  have  disarmed  most 
people,  but  were  to  me  almost  con 
clusive  proofs  of  her  guilt.  She  is 
a  woman  whose  shallow  irresponsi 
bility  of  mind  is  even  more  unusual 
than  her  remarkable  beauty.  No 
one  but  an  old  and  seasoned  crimi 
nal,  or  a  creature  of  extraordinary 
simplicity,  could  have  behaved  with 
so  much  audacity  in  such  a  situation. 
Having  arrived  at  these  conclu 
sions,  I  am  not  reduced  to  a  passive 
attitude.  I  will  wait  and  watch  until 
such  time  as  the  diamonds  are  either 
pawned  or  sold.  This  may  not  occur 
for  months,  tho  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  her  ladyship's  need  of 
money  will  force  her  to  a  reckless 
ness  which  will  be  her  undoing.  Sara 
Dwight  may  be  able  to  control  her  to 
152 


DIAMOND  CASE 

a  certain  point,  but  I  am  under  the 
impression  that  her  ladyship,  fright 
ened  and  desperate,  will  be  a  very 
difficult  person  to  handle. 

This  brings  my  statement  up  to 
date.  At  the  present  writing  I  am 
simply  awaiting  developments,  con 
fident  that  the  outcome  will  prove 
the  verity  of  my  original  proposition 
and  the  exactitude  of  my  subsequent 
line  of  argument. 


153 


The  Statement  of  Daisy  K.  Fair- 
weather  Kennedy,  late  of  Necropolis 
City,  Ohio,  at  present  a  resident  of  15 
Farley  Street,  Knightsbridge,  London. 


The  Statement  of  Daisy  K.  Fair- 
weather  Kennedy,  late  of  Necropolis 
City,  Ohio,  at  present  a  resident  of  15 
Farley  Street,  Knightsbridge,  London. 

I  BELIEVE  it  is  not  necessary  for  me 
to  state  how  a  chamois-skin  bag 
containing  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
two  diamonds  came  into  my  hands 
on  the  evening  of  May  14th.  That  it 
did  come  into  my  possession  was 
enough  for  me.  I  never  before 
thought  that  the  possession  of  dia 
monds  could  make  a  woman  so  per 
fectly  miserable.  When  I  was  a 
young  girl  in  Necropolis  City  I  used 
to  think  to  own  a  diamond — even 
one  small  one — would  be  just  about 
the  acme  of  human  joy.  But  Ne 
cropolis  City  is  a  good  way  behind 
me  now,  and  I  have  found  that  the 
157 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

owning  of  a  handful  of  them  can  be 
about  the  most  wearing  form  of 
misery. 

I  suppose  there  are  fearless,  up 
right  people  in  the  world  who  would 
have  taken  those  diamonds  straight 
back  to  the  police  station  and  braved 
public  opinion.  It  would  have  been 
better  to  have  had  your  word  doubt 
ed,  to  be  tried  for  a  thief,  put  in  jail, 
and  probably  complicated  the  diplo 
matic  relations  between  England  and 
the  United  States,  than  to  conceal  in 
your  domicile  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
two  precious  stones  that  didn't  be 
long  to  you.  I  hope  every  one  un 
derstands — and  I'm  sure  every  one 
does  who  knows  me — that  I  did  not 
want  to  keep  the  miserable  things. 
What  good  did  they  do  me,  anyway, 
158 


DIAMOND  CASE 

locked  up  in  my  jewel-box,  in  the 
upper  right-hand  bureau  drawer? 

We  knew  no  peace  from  that  trag 
ic  evening  when  Major  and  Mrs. 
Thatcher  dined  with  us.  First  we 
tried  to  think  of  ways  of  getting  rid 
of  them — of  the  diamonds,  I  mean. 
Cassius,  who's  just  a  simple,  un 
complicated  man,  wanted  to  take 
them  right  to  the  nearest  police  sta 
tion  and  hand  them  in.  I  soon 
showed  him  the  madness  of  that. 
Was  there  a  soul  in  London  who 
would  have  believed  our  story? 
Wouldn't  the  American  ambassador 
himself  have  had  to  bow  his  crested 
head  and  tame  his  heart  of  fire,  and 
admit  it  was  about  the  fishiest  tale 
he  had  ever  heard? 

It  would  have  ruined  us  forever. 
Even  if  Cassius  hadn't  been  deposed 
159 


THE  OASTLECOUET 

from  Ms  place  as  the  head  of  the 
English  branch  of  the  Colonial  Box, 
Tub,  and  Cordage  Company  (Ltd), 
of  Chicago  and  St.  Louis,  who  would 
have  known  me?  The  trail  of  the 
diamonds  would  have  been  over  us 
forever.  Lady  Sara  Gyves  would 
have  gone  round  saying  she  always 
thought  I  had  the  face  of  a  thief, 
and  the  bishop  and  the  two  lords 
I've  collected  with  such  care  would 
have  cut  me  dead  in  the  Park.  I 
would  have  received  my  social  quie 
tus  forever.  And,  I  just  tell  you, 
when  I've  worked  for  a  thing  as 
hard  as  I  have  for  that  bishop  and 
the  two  lords  and  Lady  Sara  Gyves, 
I'm  not  going  to  give  them  up  with 
out  a  struggle. 

Cassius  and  I  spent  two  feverish, 
agonized  weeks  trying  to  think  what 
160 


DIAMOND  CASE 

we  would  do  with  the  diamonds.  I 
never  knew  before  I  had  so  much 
inventive  ability.  It  was  wonderful 
the  things  we  thought  of.  One  of 
our  ideas  was  to  put  a  personal  in 
the  papers  advertising  for  " Amelia." 
We  spent  five  consecutive  evenings 
concocting  different  ones  that  would 
have  the  effect  of  rousing  "  Ame 
lia's"  curiosity  and  deadening  that 
of  everybody  else.  It  did  not  seem 
capable  of  construction.  Twist  and 
turn  it  as  you  would,  you  couldn't 
state  that  you  had  something  valu 
able  in  your  possession  for  " Amelia" 
without  making  the  paragraph  bris 
tle  with  a  sort  of  mysterious  impor 
tance.  It  was  like  a  trap  set  and 
baited  to  catch  the  attention  of  a 
detective.  We  did  insert  one — 
"Will  Amelia  kindly  publish  her 
161 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

present  address,  and  oblige  Major 
and  Mrs.  Thatcher?"— which,  after 
all,  didn't  involve  us.  And  for  two 
weeks  we  read  the  papers  with  beat 
ing,  hopeful  hearts,  but  there  was 
no  reply.  I  thought  "  Amelia"  never 
saw  it.  Cassius  thought  there  was 
no  such  person. 

A  month  dragged  itself  away,  and 
there  we  were  with  those  horrible 
gems  locked  in  my  jewel-box.  I  be 
gan  to  look  pale  and  miserable,  and 
Cassius  told  me  he  thought  the  dia 
monds  were  becoming  a  " fixed  idea" 
with  me,  and  he'd  have  to  take  me 
away  for  a  change.  Once  I  told  him 
I  felt  as  if  I'd  never  have  any  peace 
or  be  my  old  gay  self  again  while 
they  were  in  my  possession.  He  said, 
that  being  the  case,  he'd  take  them 
out  some  night  and  throw  them  in 
162 


DIAMOND  CASE 

/ 

the  Serpentine,  the  pond  where  the 
despondent  people  commit  suicide. 
But  I  dissuaded  him  from  it. 

" Perhaps  they'll  never  be  claim 
ed,"  I  said.  "And  some  day  when 
we're  old  we  can  have  them  set  and 
Elaine  can  wear  them." 

"You  might  even  wear  them  your 
self,"  Cassius  said,  trying  to  cheer 
me  up. 

"What  would  be  the  good?"  I 
answered,  gloomily.  "I'd  be  at  least 
sixty  before  I'd  dare  to." 

All  through  June  I  lived  under 
this  wearing  strain,  and  I  grew 
thinner  and  more  nervous  day  by 
day.  The  season  which  is  always  so 
lovely  and  gay  was  no  longer  an  ex 
citing  and  joyous  time  for  me.  I 
drove  down  Bond  Street  with  a 
frowning  face,  and  it  did  not  cheer 
163 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

me  up  at  all  to  see  how  many  people 
I  seemed  to  know.  Looking  down 
the  vistas  of  quiet,  asphalted  streets, 
where  the  lines  of  sedate  house 
fronts  are  brightened  by  polished 
brasses  on  the  doors  and  flower-boxes 
at  the  windows,  I  was  no  longer  filled 
with  an  exhilarating  determination  to 
some  day  be  an  honored  guest  in 
every  house  that  was  worth  entering. 
When  I  drove  by  the  green  ovals  of 
the  little  parks,  which  you  can't 
enter  without  a  private  key,  I  ex 
perienced  none  of  my  old  ambition 
to  have  a  key  too,  and  go  in  and 
mingle  with  the  aristocracy  sitting 
on  wooden  benches. 

Even    meeting    the    Countess    of 
Belsborough  at  a  reception,  and  be 
ing    asked    by   her,    in    a    sociable, 
friendly  way,  if  I  knew  her  cousin 
164 


DIAMOND  CASE 

John,  who  was  mining  somewhere  in 
Mexico  or  Honduras — she  wasn't 
sure  which — did  not  cheer  me  up  at 
all.  The  change  in  me  was  extraor 
dinary.  When  I  first  came  to  Lon 
don,  if  even  a  curate  or  a  clerk  from 
the  city  had  asked  me  such  a  ques 
tion,  I'd  have  made  an  effort  to  re 
member  John,  as  if  Mexico  had  been 
my  front  garden  and  I'd  played  all 
round  Honduras  when  I  was  a  child. 
Now  I  said  to  Lady  Belsborough 
that  neither  Mexico  nor  Honduras 
were  part  of  the  United  States  quite 
snappishly,  as  if  I  thought  she  was 
stupid.  And  all  because  of  those 
accursed  diamonds ! 

It  was  toward  the  end  of  June, 
and  the  days  were  getting  warm, 
when  the  climax  came. 

The  pressure  of  the  season  was 
165 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

abating.  The  rhododendrons  were 
dead  in  the  Park,  and  there  was  dust 
on  the  trees.  In  St.  James'  the  grass 
was  quite  worn  and  patchy,  and 
strangely  clad  people  lay  on  it,  sleep 
ing  in  the  sun.  One  met  a  great 
many  American  tourists  in  white 
shirt-waists  and  long  veils.  I 
thought  of  the  time  when  I,  too,  in 
nocently  and  unthinkingly,  had  worn 
a  white  shirt-waist,  and  it  didn't 
seem  to  me  such  a  horrible  time, 
after  all — at  least,  I  did  not  then 
have  one  hundred  and  sixty-two 
stolen  diamonds  in  my  jewel-box. 
My  heart  was  lighter  in  those  days, 
even  if  my  shirt-waist  had  only  cost 
a  dollar  and  forty-nine  cents  at  a 
department  store  in  Necropolis  City. 
The  month  ended  with  a  spell  of 
what  the  English  call  "  frightful 
166 


DIAMOND  CASE 

heat/'  It  was  quite  warm  weather, 
and  we  sat  a  good  deal  on  the  little 
balcony  that  juts  out  from  my  win 
dow  over  the  front  door.  Farley 
Street  is  quiet  and  rather  out  of  the 
line  of  general  traffic,  so  we  had 
chairs  and  a  table  there,  and  used 
to  have  tea  served  under  the  one 
palm,  which  was  all  there  was  room 
for.  We  could  not  have  visitors 
there,  for  it  opened  out  of  my  bed 
room.  So  our  tea-parties  on  the 
balcony  were  strictly  family  affairs 
— just  Cassius,  and  Elaine,  and  I. 

The  last  day  of  the  month  was  re 
ally  very  warm.  Every  door  in  the 
house  was  open,  and  the  servants 
went  about  gasping,  with  their  faces 
crimson.  I  dined  at  home  alone  that 
evening,  as  one  of  the  members  of 
the  Box,  Tub,  and  Cordage  Company 
167 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

was  in  London,  at  the  Carlton,  and 
Cassius  was  dining  with  him.  I  did 
not  expect  him  home  till  late,  as 
there  would  be  lots  to  talk  over. 

I  had  not  felt  well  all  day.  The 
heat  had  given  me  a  headache,  and 
after  dinner  I  lay  on  the  sofa  in  the 
sitting-room,  feeling  quite  miserable. 
Only  a  few  of  the  lamps  were  lit, 
and  the  house  was  dim  and  extreme 
ly  quiet.  Being  alone  that  way  in 
the  half  dark  got  on  my  nerves,  and 
I  decided  I'd  go  up-stairs  and  go 
to  bed  early.  I  always  did  hate  sit 
ting  about  by  myself,  and  now  more 
than  ever,  with  the  diamonds  on  my 
conscience. 

Our   stairs  are  thickly   carpeted, 

and  as  I  had  on  thin  satin  slippers 

and  a   crepe   tea-gown  I   made   no 

noise  at  all  coming  up.     I  always 

168 


DIAMOND  CASE 

have  a  light  burning  in  my  room, 
so  when  I  saw  a  yellow  gleam  be 
low  the  door  I  did  not  think  any 
thing  of  it,  but  just  softly  pushed 
the  door  open  and  went  in.  Then  I 
stopped  dead  where  I  stood.  A  man 
with  a  soft  felt-hat  on,  and  a  hand 
kerchief  tied  over  the  lower  part  of 
his  face,  was  standing  in  front  of 
the  bureau! 

He  had  not  heard  me,  and  for  a 
moment  I  stood  without  making  a 
sound,  watching  him.  The  two  gas- 
jets  on  either  side  of  the  bureau 
were  lit,  and  that  part  of  the  room 
was  flooded  with  light.  Very  quick 
ly  and  softly  he  was  turning  over 
the  contents  of  the  drawers,  taking 
out  laces,  gloves,  and  veils,  throwing 
them  this  way  and  that  out  of  his 
way,  and  opening  every  box  he 
169 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

found.  My  heart  gave  a  great  leap 
when  I  saw  him  seize  upon  the 
jewel-box,  and  my  mouth,  unfortu 
nately,  emitted  some  kind  of  a  sound 
— I  think  it  was  a  sort  of  gasp  of 
relief,  but  I'm  not  sure. 

Whatever  it  was,  he  heard.  He 
gave  a  start  as  if  he  had  been  elec 
trified,  raised  his  head,  and  saw  me. 
For  just  one  second  he  stood  staring, 
and  then  he  said  something — of  a 
profane  character,  I  think — and  ran 
for  the  balcony. 

And  I  ran  too.  There  was  some 
thing  in  the  way — a  little  table,  I  be 
lieve — and  he  collided  with  it.  That 
checked  him  for  a  moment,  and  I 
got  to  the  window  first.  I  threw 
myself  across  it  with  my  arms  spread 
out,  in  an  attitude  like  that  assumed 
by  Sara  Bernhardt  when  she  is  bar- 
170 


u 
II 


DIAMOND  CASE 

ring  her  lover's  exit  in  " Fedora." 
But  I  don't  think  any  actress  ever 
barred  her  lover's  exit  with  as  much 
determination  and  zeal  as  I  barred 
the  exit  of  that  burglar. 

You  can't  go!"  I  cried,  wildly. 

YouVe  forgotten  something!" 

He  paused  just  in  front  of  me,  and 
I  cried  again : 

"You  haven't  got  them;  they're  in 
the  jewelry-box." 

He  moved  forward  and  laid  his 
hand  on  my  arm,  to  push  me  aside. 
I  felt  quite  desperate,  and  wailed : 

"Oh,  don't  go  without  opening  the 
jewelry-box.  There  are  some  things 
in  it  I  know  you  will  like." 

He  tried  to  push  me  out  of  the 

way — gently,    it   is   true,    but   with 

force.    But  I  clung  to  him,  clasped 

him  by  the  arm  with  what  must  have 

171 


THE  CASTLECOUET 

appeared  quite  an  affectionate  grip, 
and  continued,  imploringly: 

" Don't  be  in  such  a  hurry.  I'm 
sorry  I  interrupted  you.  If  you'll 
promise  not  to  go  till  you've  looked 
through  my  things  and  taken  what 
you  want,  I'll  leave  the  room.  It 
was  quite  by  accident  that  I  came 


in." 


The  burglar  let  go  my  arm,  and 
looked  at  me  over  the  handkerchief 
with  a  pair  of  eyes  that  seemed  quite 
kind  and  pleasant. 

" Really,"  he  said,  in  a  deep,  gen 
tlemanly  voice  that  seemed  familiar 
— "  really,  I  don't  quite  under 
stand—" 

"I  know  you  don't,"  I  interrupted, 

impulsively.     "How   could   you   be 

expected  to?    And  I  can't  explain. 

It's  a  most  complicated  matter,  and 

172 


DIAMOND  CASE 

would  take  too  long.  Only  don't  be 
frightened  and  run  away  till  you've 
taken  something.  You've  endan 
gered  your  life  and  risked  going  to 
prison  to  get  in  here;  and  wouldn't 
it  be  too  foolish,  after  that,  to  go 
without  anything?  Now,  in  the  jew 
elry-box" — I  indicated  it,  and  spoke 
in  what  I  hoped  was  a  most  insin 
uating  tone — "  there  are  some  things 
that  I  think  you'd  like.  If  you'd 
just  look  at  them — " 

"  You  're  a  most  persuasive  lady," 
said  the  burglar,  "but — " 

He  moved  again  toward  the  win 
dow.  A  feeling  of  absolute  anguish 
that  he  was  going  without  the  dia 
monds  pierced  me.  I  threw  myself 
in  front  of  him  again,  and  in  some 
way,  I  can't  tell  you  how,  caught 
the  handkerchief  that  covered  his 
173 


THE  CASTLECOUKT 

face  and  pulled  it  down.  There  was 
the  handsome  visage  and  long  mus 
tache  of  Major  Thatcher! 

I  backed  away  from  him  in  the 
greatest  confusion.  He  too  blushed 
and  looked  uncomfortable. 

"Oh,  Major  Thatcher,"  I  mur 
mured,  "I  beg  your  pardon!  I'm 
so  sorry.  I  don't  know  how  it  hap 
pened.  I  think  the  end  of  the  hand 
kerchief  caught  in  my  bracelet." 

"Pray  don't  mention  it,"  an 
swered  the  major,  "nothing  at  all." 

Then  we  were  both  silent,  standing 
opposite  one  another,  not  knowing 
what  to  say.  It  is  not  easy  to  feaze 
me,  but  it  must  be  admitted  that  the 
situation  was  unusual. 

"How  is  Mrs.  Thatcher?"  I  said, 
desperately,  when  the  silence  had  be 
come  unbearable.  And  the  major 
174 


DIAMOND  CASE 

replied,  in  his  deepest  voice,  and  with 
his  most  abrupt  military  air: 

"  EtheFs  very  fit.  Never  was  bet 
ter  in  her  life,  thank  you.  Mr.  Ken 
nedy  is  quite  well,  I  hope?" 

"Cassius  is  enjoying  the  best  of 
health,"  I  answered.  "He's  out  to 
night,  I'm  sorry  to  say." 

"Just  fancy,"  said  Major  Thatch 
er.  Then  there  was  a  pause,  and  he 
added :  ' i  How  tiresome ! ' ' 

I  could  think  of  nothing  more  to 
say,  and  again  we  were  silent.  It 
was  really  the  most  uncomfortable 
position  I  ever  was  in.  The  major 
was  a  burglar  beyond  a  doubt,  but 
he  looked  and  talked  just  like  a  gen 
tleman;  besides,  he'd  dined  with  us. 
That  makes  a  great  difference. 
When  a  man  has  broken  bread  at 
your  table  as  a  respectable  fellow 
175 


THE  OASTLECOURT 

creature,  it's  hard  to  get  your  mind 
round  to  regarding  him  severly  as  a 
criminal.  I  felt  that  the  only  thing 
to  do  was  to  graciously  ignore  it  all, 
as  you  do  when  some  one  spills  the 
claret  on  your  best  table-cloth.  At 
the  same  time,  there  were  the  dia 
monds!  I  could  not  let  the  chance 
escape. 

"Oh,  Major  Thatcher!"  I  said, 
with  an  air  of  suddenly  remember 
ing  something.  "I  don't  know 
whether  you  know  that  your  wife 
left  a  little  package  here  that  eve 
ning  when  you  dined  with  us.  It  was 
for  Amelia." 

Major  Thatcher  looked  at  me  with 
the  most  heavily  solemn  expression. 

"To  be  sure,"  he  murmured,  "for 
Amelia." 

"Well,"  I  went  on,  trying  to  im- 
176 


DIAMOND  CASE 

part  to  my  words  a  light  society 
tone,  "you  know  we  can't  find  her. 
Very  stupid  of  us,  I  have  no  doubt. 
But  we've  tried,  and  we  can't,  any 
where." 

Major  Thatcher  stared  blankly  at 
the  dressing-table. 

" Strange,  'pon  my  word!"  he  said. 

"So,  Major  Thatcher,  if  you  don't 
mind,  I'll  give  it  back  to  you.  I 
think,  all  things  considered,  it  will 
be  best  for  you  to  give  it  to  Amelia 
yourself." 

I  went  toward  the  dressing-table. 

"You  don't  mind,  do  you?"  I 
said,  over  my  shoulder,  as  I  opened 
the  jewelry-box. 

"Not  at  all,  not  at  all,"  answered 
the  major.  "Anything  to  oblige  a 
lady." 

I  drew  out  the  sack  of  chamois 
177 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

skin.  "Here  it  is,"  I  said,  holding 
it  out  to  him.  "You'll  find  it  in  per 
fect  condition  and  quite  complete. 
I'm  so  sorry  that  we  couldn't  seem 
to  locate  Amelia.  Not  knowing  the 
rest  of  her  name  was  rather  incon 
venient.  There  were  dozens  of 
Amelias  in  the  directory." 

The  major  took  the  sack,  and  put 
it  in  his  breast-pocket. 

"Dozens  of  Amelias,"  he  repeated, 
slapping  his  pocket.  "Who'd  have 
thought  it!" 

"We  even  advertised,"  I  contin 
ued.  "Perhaps  you  saw  the  per 
sonal  ;  it  was  in  the  morning  Herald, 
and  was  very  short  and  noncom 
mittal,  but  no  one  answered  it." 

"We  saw  it,"  said  the  major. 
"Yes,  I  recollect  quite  distinctly 
178 


DIAMOND  CASE 

seeing  it.     It — it — indicated  to  us — 


aw — aw — " 


The  major  reddened  and  paused, 
pulling  his  mustache. 

"That  we  hadn't  found  Amelia 
and  still  had  the  present,"  I  an 
swered,  in  a  sprightly  tone.  "That 
was  just  it.  And  so  you  came  to  get 
it?  Very  kind  of  you,  indeed,  Major 
Thatcher." 

The  major  bowed.  He  was  really 
a  very  fine-looking,  well-mannered 
man.  If  he  only  had  been  the  hon 
est,  respectable  person  we  first 
thought  him  I  would  have  liked  to 
add  him  to  my  collection.  I'm 
sure  if  you  knew  him  better  he 
would  have  been  much  more  inter 
esting  than  the  bishop  and  the  lords. 

"The  kindness  is  on  your  side," 
he  said.    "And  now,  Mrs. 
179 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

I  think — I  think,  perhaps" — he 
looked  at  the  window  that  gave  on 
the  balcony— "I  think  I'd  better—" 

"You  must  be  going!"  I  cried, 
just  as  I  say  it  to  the  bishop  when 
he  puts  down  his  cup  and  looks  at 
the  clock.  i  i  How  unfortunate !  But, 
of  course,  your  other  engagements — " 

I  checked  myself,  suddenly  real 
izing  that  it  wasn't  just  the  thing  to 
say  to  the  major.  When  you're 
talking  to  a  burglar  it  doesn't  seem 
delicate  or  thoughtful  to  allude  to 
his  "other  engagements."  That  I 
made  such  a  break  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  I'd  never  talked  to  a  burglar 
before,  and  was  bound  to  be  a  little 
green. 

The  major  did  not  seem  to  mind. 

"Exactly  so,"  he  said.  "My  time 
180 


DIAMOND  CASE 

is  just  now  much  occupied.    I  —  er  — 


He  looked  again  at  the  window. 

"I  —  er  —  entered  that  way,"  he 
said,  "but  perhaps  —  " 

"I  don't  think  I'd  go  out  that  way 
if  I  were  you,"  I  answered,  hurried 
ly,  "it  would  look  so  queer  if  any  one 
saw  you." 

"Would  the  other  and  more  usual 
exit  be  safe?"  he  asked.  His  eye, 
as  it  met  mine,  was  charged  with  a 
keener  intelligence  than  I  had  seen 
in  it  before. 

"It  would  have  to  be,"  I  answered, 
with  spirit.  "What  do  you  suppose 
the  servants  would  think  if  they  saw 
you  coming  out  of  here  ?  This,  Major 
Thatcher,  is  my  room." 

"Dear  me!"  said  the  major,  "I 
181 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

suppose  it  is.  I  never  thought  of 
that." 

"Wait  here  till  I  see  if  it  is  all 
right,"  I  said,  "and  then  I'll  come 
back  and  tell  you." 

I  went  into  the  hall  and  looked 
over  the  banister.  The  gas  was 
burning  faintly,  and  a  bar  of  pink 
lamplight  fell  out  from  the  half- 
drawn  portieres  of  the  drawing- 
room.  There  was  not  a  sound.  I 
knew  the  servants  were  all  in  the 
back  part  of  the  house,  quite  safe 
till  eleven  o'clock,  when,  if  we  were 
home,  they  turned  out  the  lights  and 
locked  up.  I  stole  softly  back  into 
my  room.  The  major  was  standing 
in  front  of  the  mirror  untying  the 
handkerchief  that  hung  round  his 
neck. 

"It's  all  right,"  I  assured  him,  in 
182 


DIAMOND  CASE 

an  unconsciously  lowered  voice. 
"You  can  go  quite  easily;  I'll  let 
you  out.  Only  you  mustn't  make 
the  least  bit  of  noise. " 

He  thrust  the  handkerchief  in  his 
pocket  and  put  on  his  hat,  pulling 
the  brim  down  over  his  eyes.  I  must 
confess  he  didn't  look  half  so  dis 
tinguished  this  way.  When  the 
handkerchief  was  gone,  I  saw  he  wore 
a  flannel  shirt  with  a  turned-down 
collar,  and  with  his  hat  shading  his 
face  he  certainly  did  seem  a  strange 
sort  of  man  for  me  to  be  conducting 
down  the  stairs  at  half -past  ten  at 
night.  If  Perkins,  who'd  come  to 
us  bristling  with  respectability  from 
a  distinguished,  evangelical,  aristo 
cratic  family,  should  meet  us,  I 
would  never  hold  up  my  head  again. 

"Now,  if  you  hear  Perkins,"  I 
183 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

whispered,  "for  heavens'  sake,  hide 
somewhere.  Run  back  to  my  room, 
if  you  can't  go  anywhere  else.  Per 
kins  must  not  see  you!" 

The  major  growled  out  some  re 
ply,  and  we  tiptoed  breathlessly 
across  the  hall  to  the  stair-head.  I 
was  much  more  frightened  than  he 
was.  I  know,  as  I  stole  from  step 
to  step,  my  heart  kept  beating  faster 
and  faster.  Such  awful  things 
might  have  happened:  Perkins  sud 
denly  appear  to  put  out  the  lights; 
Cassius  come  home  early  from  the 
dinner,  and  open  the  front  door  just 
as  I  was  about  to  let  the  major  out! 
When  we  reached  the  door  I  was 
quite  faint,  while  the  major  seemed 
as  cool  as  if  he'd  been  paying  a  call. 

"Very  kind  of  you,  I'm  sure,"  he 
184 


DIAMOND  CASE 

said,  trying  to  take  off.  his  hat.  "I 
shan't  forget  it." 

"Oh,  never  mind  being  polite,"  I 
gasped.  "You've  got  the  diamonds. 
That's  all  that  matters.  Good-night. 
Give  my  regards  to  Mrs.  Thatcher." 

And  he  was  gone !  I  shut  the  door 
and  crept  up-stairs.  First  I  felt  faint, 
and  then  I  felt  hysterical.  When 
Cassius  came  home  at  eleven  I  was 
lying  on  the  sofa  in  tears,  and  all  I 
could  say  to  him  was  to  sob: 

"The  diamonds  are  gone!  The 
diamonds  are  gone!" 

He  thought  I'd  gone  mad  at  first, 
and  then  when  I  finally  made  him 
understand  he  was  nearly  as  ex 
cited  as  I.  He  went  down-stairs  and 
brought  up  a  bottle  of  champagne, 
and  we  celebrated  at  midnight  up  in 
our  room.  We  had  to  tell  lies  to 
185 


CASTLECOURT  DIAMOND   CASE 

Perkins  afterward  to  explain  how 
we  came  to  be  one  bottle  short.  But 
what  did  lies  matter,  or  even  Per 
kins'  opinion  of  us?  We  were  no 
longer  crushed  under  the  weight  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty-two  diamonds 
that  didn't  belong  to  us! 

That  is  the  history  of  my  connec 
tion  with  the  case.  From  that  night 
I've  never  seen  or  heard  of  the 
stones,  nor  have  I  seen  Major  or  Mrs. 
Thatcher.  The  diamonds  entered 
our  possession  and  departed  from 
them  exactly  as  I  have  told,  and  tho 
my  stateemnt  may  call  for  great  cre 
dulity  on  the  part  of  my  readers,  all 
I  can  say  is  that  I  am  willing  to 
vouch  for  the  truth  of  every  word 
of  it. 


186 


Statement  of  Gladys,  Marchioness  of 
Castlecourt.     ::::::::• 


Statement  of  Gladys,  Marchioness  of 
Castlecourt.     ::::::::: 

I  AM  sure  if  any  one  was  ever  pun 
ished  for  their  misdeeds  it  was  I. 
I  suppose  I  ought  to  say  sins,  but 
it  is  such  an  unpleasant  word !  I  can 
not  imagine  myself  committing  sins, 
and  yet  that  is  just  what  I  seem  to 
have  done.  I  couldn't  have  been 
more  astonished  if  some  one  had  told 
me  I  was  going  to  committ  a  murder. 
One  thing  I  have  learned — you  do 
not  know  what  you  may  do  till  you 
have  been  tried  and  tempted.  And 
then  you  do  wrong  before  you  realize 
it,  and  all  of  a  sudden  it  comes  upon 
you  that  you  are  a  criminal  quite 
unexpectedly,  and  no  one  is  more  sur 
prised  than  you.  I  certainly  know  I 
189 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

was  the  most  surprised  person  in 
London  when  I  realized  that  I —  But 
there,  I  am  wandering  all  about,  and 
I  want  to  tell  my  story  simply  and 
shortly. 

Everybody  knows  that  when  I 
married  Lord  Castlecourt  I  was 
poor.  What  everybody  does  not 
know  is  that  I  was  a  natural  spend 
thrift.  Extravagance  was  in  my 
blood,  as  drinking  or  the  love  of 
cards  is  in  the  blood  of  some  men. 
I  had  never  had  any  money  at  all. 
I  used  to  wear  the  same  gloves  for 
years,  and  always  made  my  own 
frocks — not  badly,  either.  I've  made 
gowns  that  Lady  Bundy  said —  But 
that  has  nothing  to  do  with  it;  I'm 
getting  away  from  the  point. 

As  I  said  before,  I  was  poor.  I 
didn't  know  how  extravagant  I  was 
190 


DIAMOND  CASE 

till  I  married  and  Lord  Castlecourt 
gave  me  six  hundred  pounds  a  year 
to  dress  on.  It  was  a  fortune  to  me. 
I'd  never  thought  one  woman  could 
have  so  much.  The  first  two  years 
of  our  married  life  I  did  not  run  over 
it,  because  we  lived  most  of  the  time 
in  the  country,  and  I  was  unused  to 
it,  and  spent  it  slowly  and  carefully. 
I  was  still  unaccustomed  to  it  when, 
after  my  second  boy  was  born,  Her 
bert  brought  me  to  town  for  my  first 
season  since  our  marriage. 

Then  I  began  to  spend  money, 
quantities  of  it,  for  it  seemed  to  me 
that  six  hundred  pounds  a  year  was 
absolutely  inexhaustible.  When  I 
saw  anything  pretty  in  a  shop  I 
bought  it,  and  I  generally  forgot  to 
ask  the  price.  The  shop  people  were 
always  kind  and  agreeable,  and 
191 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

seemed  to  have  forgotten  about  it  as 
completely  as  I. 

After  I  had  bought  one  thing  they 
would  urge  me  to  look  at  something 
else,  which  was  put  away  in  a  drawer 
or  laid  out  in  a  cardboard  box,  and 
if  I  liked  it  I  bought  that  too.  If  I 
ever  paused  to  think  that  I  was  buy 
ing  a  great  deal,  I  contented  myself 
with  the  assurance  that  I  had  six 
hundred  pounds  a  year,  which  was 
so  much  I  would  never  get  to  the 
end  of  it. 

After  that  first  season  a  great 
many  bills  came  in,  and  I  was  quite 
surprised  to  see  I'd  spent  already, 
with  the  year  hardly  half  gone,  more 
than  my  six  hundred  pounds.  I 
eould  not  understand  how  it  had 
happened,  and  I  asked  Herbert 
about  it  and  showed  him  some  of  my 
192 


DIAMOND  CASE 

bills,  and  for  the  first  time  in  our 
married  life  he  was  angry  with  me. 
He  scolded  me  quite  sharply,  and 
told  me  I  must  keep  within  my  al 
lowance.  I  was  hurt,  and  also  rather 
muddled,  with  all  these  different 
accounts — most  of  which  I  could  not 
remember — and  I  made  up  my  mind 
not  to  consult  Herbert  any  more,  as 
it  only  vexed  him  and  made  him 
cross  to  me,  and  that  I  can  not  bear. 
All  the  world  must  love  me.  If 
there  is  a  servant-maid  in  the  house 
who  does  not  like  me — and  I  can  feel 
it  in  a  minute  if  she  doesn't — I  must 
make  her,  or  she  must  go  away.  But 
my  husband,  the  best  and  finest  man 
in  the  world,  to  have  him  annoyed 
with  me  and  scolding  me  over  stupid 
bills!  Never  again  would  that  hap 
pen.  I  showed  him  no  more  of  them ; 
193 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

in  fact,  I  generally  tore  them  up  as 
they  came  in,  for  fear  I  should 
leave  them  lying  about  and  he  would 
find  them.  If  I  could  help  it,  noth 
ing  in  the  world  was  ever  going  to 
come  between  Herbert  and  me. 

I  also  made  good  resolutions  to  be 
more  careful  in  my  expenditures. 
And  I  really  tried  to  keep  them.  I 
don't  know  how  it  happened  that 
they  did  not  seem  to  get  kept.  But 
both  in  London  and  in  Paris  I  cer 
tainly  did  spend  a  great  deal — I'm 
sure  I  don't  know  how  much.  I  did 
little  accounts  on  the  back  of  notes, 
and  they  were  so  confusing,  and  I 
seemed  to  have  spent  so  much  more 
than  I  thought  I  had,  that  I  gave  up 
doing  them.  After  I'd  covered  the 
back  of  two  or  three  notes  with  fig 
ures,  I  became  so  low-spirited  I 
194 


DIAMOND  CASE 

couldn't  enjoy  anything  for  the  rest 
of  the  day.  I  did  not  see  that  that 
did  anybody  any  good,  so  I  ceased 
keeping  the  accounts.  And  what  was 
the  use  of  keeping  them?  If  I  had 
not  the  money  to  pay  them  with,  why 
should  I  make  myself  miserable  by 
thinking  about  them?  I  thought  it 
much  more  sensible  to  try  to  forget 
them,  and  most  of  the  time  I  did! 

It  went  on  that  way  for  two  years. 
When  I  got  bills  with  things  written 
across  the  bottom  in  red  ink  I  paid 
part  of  them — never  all;  I  never 
paid  all  of  anything.  Once  or  twice 
tradesmen  wrote  me  letters,  saying 
they  must  have  their  money,  and 
then  I  went  to  see  them,  and  told 
them  how  kind  it  was  of  them  to 
trust  me,  and  how  I  would  pay  them 
everything  soon,  and  they  seemed 
195 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

quite  pleased  and  satisfied.  I  al 
ways  intended  doing  it.  I  don't 
know  where  I  thought  the  money  was 
coming  from,  but  you  never  can 
tell  what  may  happen.  Some  friends 
of  Herbert  had  a  place  near  the 
Scotch  border,  and  found  a  coal 
mine  in  the  forest.  Herbert  has  no 
lands  near  Scotland,  but  he  has  in 
other  places,  and  he  may  find  a  coal 
mine  too.  I  merely  cite  this  as  an 
example  of  the  strange  ways  things 
turn  out.  I  didn't  exactly  expect 
that  Herbert  would  find  a  coal-mine, 
but  I  did  expect  that  money  would 
turn  up  in  some  unexpected  way  and 
help  me  out  of  my  difficulties. 

The   beginning    of   the    series    of 
really  terrible  events  of  which  I  am 
writing  was  the  purchase  of  a  Rus 
sian  sable  jacket  from  a  furrier  in 
196 


DIAMOND  CASE 

Paris  called  Bolkonsky.  It  was  in  the 
early  spring  of  last  year.  I  had  had 
no  dealings  with  Bolkonsky  before. 
A  friend  told  me  of  the  jacket,  and 
took  me  there.  It  was  a  real  occa 
sion.  I  knew  the  moment  that  I  saw 
it  that  it  was  one  of  those  chances 
with  which  one  rarely  meets.  It  fitted 
me  like  a  charm,  and  I  bought  it  for 
a  thousand  pounds.  That  miserable 
Bolkonsky  told  me  the  payments 
might  be  made  in  any  way  I  liked, 
and  at  *  '  madame  's  own  time. ' '  I  also 
bought  some  good  turquoises,  that 
were  going  for  nothing,  from  a  jew 
eler  up-stairs  somewhere  near  the 
Rue  de  La  Paix,  who  was  selling  out 
the  jewels  of  an  actress.  It  was 
these  two  people  who  wrecked  me. 

Not  that  they  were  my  only  debt 
ors.     I  knew  by  this  time   that  I 
197 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

owed  a  great  deal.  When  I  thought 
about  it  I  was  frightened,  and  so  I 
tried  not  to  think.  But  sometimes 
when  I  was  awake  at  night,  and 
everything  looked  dark  and  depress 
ed,  I  wondered  what  I  would  do  if 
something  did  not  happen.  In  these 
moments  I  thought  of  telling  my 
husband,  and  I  buried  my  head  in 
the  pillow  and  turned  cold  with 
misery.  What  would  Herbert  say 
when  he  found  out  his  wife  was 
thousands  of  pounds  in  debt — the 
Marquis  of  Castlecourt,  who  had 
never  owed  a  penny  and  considered 
it  a  disgrace. 

Perhaps  he  would  be  so  horrified 
and  disgusted  he  would  send  me 
away  from  him — back  to  Ireland,  or 
to  the  Continent.  And  what  would 
happen  to  me  then? 
198 


DIAMOND  CASE 

That  summer  we  went  to  Castle- 
court  Marsh  Manor,  and  there  my 
anxieties  became  almost  unbearable. 
Bolkonsky  began  to  dun  me  most  cru 
elly.  Other  creditors  wrote  me  let 
ters,  urging  for  payments.  The  jew 
eler  from  whom  I  had  bought  the 
turquoises  sent  me  a  letter,  telling 
me  if  I  didn't  settle  his  account  by 
September  he  would  sue  me.  And 
finally  Bolkonsky  sent  a  man  over, 
whom  I  saw  in  London,  and  who 
told  me  that  unless  the  sable  jacket 
was  paid  for  within  two  months  he 
would  "lay  the  matter  before  Lord 
Castlecourt." 

We  went  across  to  Paris  in  Sep 
tember,  and  there  I  saw  those  dread 
ful  people.  My  other  French  and 
English  creditors  I  could  manage,  but 
I  could  do  nothing  with  either  Bol- 
199 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

konsky  or  the  jeweler.  They  spoke 
harshly  to  me — as  no  one  has  ever 
spoken  to  me  before ;  and  Bolkonsky 
told  me  that  "it  was  known  Lord 
Castlecourt  was  honest  and  paid  his 
debts,  whatever  his  wife  was."  I 
prayed  him  for  time,  and  finally 
wept — wept  to  that  horrible  Jew; 
and  there  was  another  man  in  the 
office,  too,  who  saw  me.  But  I  was 
lost  to  all  sense  of  pride  or  reserve. 
I  had  only  one  feeling  left  in  me — 
terror,  agony,  that  they  would  tell 
my  husband,  and  he  would  despise 
me  and  leave  me. 

My  misery  seemed  to  have  some 
effect  on  Bolkonsky,  and  he  told  me 
he  would  give  me  a  month  to  pay  up. 
It  was  then  the  tenth  of  September. 
I  waited  for  a  week  in  a  sort  of 
frenzy  of  hope  that  a  miracle  would 
200 


DIAMOND  CASE 

occur,  and  the  money  come  into  my 
hands  in  some  unexpected  way.  But, 
of  course,  nothing  did  occur.  By  the 
first  of  October  the  one  thousand 
pounds  was  no  nearer.  It  was  then 
that  the  desperate  idea  entered  my 
mind  which  has  nearly  ruined  me, 
and  caused  me  such  suffering  that 
the  memory  of  it  will  stay  with  me 
forever. 

The  Castlecourt  diamonds,  set  in 
a  necklace  and  valued  at  nine  thou 
sand  pounds,  were  in  my  possession. 
I  often  wore  them,  and  they  were 
carried  about  by  my  maid — a  faithful 
and  honest  creature  called  Sophy 
Jeffers.  On  one  of  my  first  trips  to 
Paris  a  friend  of  mine  had  taken  me 
to  the  office  of  a  well-known  dealer 
in  precious  and  artificial  stones  who, 
without  its  being  generally  known, 
201 


THE  CASTLECOTJRT 

did  a  sort  of  pawnbroking  business 
among  the  upper  classes.  My  friend 
had  gone  there  to  pawn  a  pearl  neck 
lace,  and  had  told  me  all  about  it 
— how  much  she  obtained  on  the 
necklace,  and  how  she  hoped  to  re 
deem  it  within  the  year,  and  how  she 
was  to  have  it  copied  in  imitation 
pearls.  The  idea  that  came  to  me 
was  to  go  to  this  place  and  pawn  the 
Castlecourt  diamonds,  having  them 
duplicated  in  paste. 

I  went  there  on  the  second  day  of 
October.  How  awful  it  was !  I  wore 
a  heavy  veil,  and  gave  a  fictitious 
name.  Several  men  looked  at  the 
diamonds,  and  I  noticed  that  they 
looked  at  me  and  whispered  together. 
Finally  they  told  me  they  would  give 
me  four  thousand  pounds  on  them, 
at  some  interest — I've  forgotten 
202 


DIAMOND  CASE 

what  it  was  now — and  that  they 
would  replace  them  with  paste,  so 
that  only  an  expert  could  tell  the 
difference.  The  next  day  I  went 
back,  and  they  gave  me  the  money. 
I  do  not  think  they  had  any  idea 
who  I  was.  At  any  rate,  while  the 
papers  were  full  of  speculations 
about  the  Castlecourt  diamonds,  they 
made  no  sign. 

I  paid  off  all  my  debts,  both  in 
Paris  and  London;  I  even  paid  a 
year's  interest  on  the  diamonds.  For 
a  short  time  I  breathed  again,  and 
was  gay  and  light-hearted.  My  hus 
band  would  never  know  that  I  had 
not  paid  my  bills  for  five  years  and 
had  been  threatened  with  a  lawsuit. 
It  was  delightful  to  get  rid  of  this 
fear,  and  I  was  quite  my  old  self. 
I  suppose  I  ought  to  have  felt  more 
203 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

guilty;  but  when  one  is  relieved  of 
a  great  weight,  one's  conscience  is 
not  so  sensitive  as  it  gets  when  there 
is  really  nothing  to  be  sensitive 
about. 

It  was  after  I  had  grown  accus 
tomed  to  feeling  free  and  unworried 
that  I  began  to  realize  what  I  had 
done.  I  had  stolen  the  diamonds. 
I  was  a  thief !  It  did  not  comfort  me 
much  to  think  that  no  one  might 
ever  find  it  out;  in  fact,  I  do  not 
think  it  comforted  me  at  all,  and  I 
know  in  the  beginning  I  expected 
it  would.  It  was  what  I  had  done 
that  rankled  in  me.  I  felt  that  I 
would  never  be  peaceful  again  till 
they  were  redeemed  and  put  back 
in  their  old  settings.  That  was  what 
I  continually  dreamed  of.  It  seemed 
to  me  if  I  could  see  them  once  more 
204 


DIAMOND  CASE 

in  their  own  case  I  would  be  happy 
and  care  free,  as  I  had  been  in  those 
first  perfect  years  of  my  married 
life. 

The  fear  that  at  this  time  most 
haunted  me  and  was  most  terrify 
ing  was  that  my  husband  might  dis 
cover  what  I  had  done.  His  wife, 
that  he  had  so  loved  and  trusted,  had 
become  a  thief !  No  one  who  has  not 
gone  through  it  knows  how  I  felt. 
I  did  not  know  any  one  could  suffer 
so.  I  went  out  constantly,  to  try  and 
forget;  and,  when  things  were  very 
cheerful  and  amusing,  I  sometimes 
did.  And  then  I  remembered — I  was 
a  thief;  I  had  stolen  my  husband's 
diamonds,  and,  if  he  ever  found  it 
out,  what  would  happen  to  me? 

This  was  the  position  I  was  in 
when  the  false  diamonds  were  taken. 
205 


THE  CASTLECOTJRT 

It  was  the  last  thing  in  the  world  I 
had  thought  could  happen.  When, 
that  night  of  the  Duke  of  Duxbury's 
dinner,  I  saw  the  empty  case  and 
Jeffers'  terrified  face,  the  world 
reeled  around  me.  I  could  not  for 
a  moment  take  it  in.  Only,  in  my 
mind,  the  diamonds  had  become  a 
sort  of  nightmare;  anything  to  do 
with  them  was  a  menace,  and  I  fol 
lowed  an  instinct  that  had  possession 
of  me  when  I  tried  to  hide  the  empty 
case  from  my  husband. 

Then,  when  my  mind  had  cleared 
and  I  had  time  to  think,  I  saw  that 
if  they  recovered  the  paste  necklace 
they  might  find  out  that  it  was  not 
real,  and  all  would  be  lost.  It  was 
a  horrible  predicament.  I  really  did 
not  know  what  I  wanted.  If  the  dia 
monds  were  found,  and  seen  to  be 
206 


DIAMOND  CASE 

false,  it  would  all  come  out,  and  Her 
bert  would  know  I  was  a  thief. 
When  I  thought  of  this  I  tried  to 
divert  the  detectives  from  hunting 
for  them,  and  I  told  that  silly,  sheep 
ish  Mr.  Brison  that  I  did  not  see 
how  he  could  be  so  sure  they  were 
stolen,  that  they  might  have  been 
mislaid.  Mr.  Brison  seemed  sur 
prised,  and  that  made  me  angry,  be 
cause,  after  all,  a  diamond  necklace 
is  not  the  sort  of  thing  that  gets  mis 
laid,  and  I  felt  I  had  been  foolish 
and  had  not  gained  anything  by  be 
ing  so. 

The  days  passed,  and  nothing  was 
heard  of  the  necklace.  I  wished 
desperately  now  that  it  would  be 
found.  For  how,  unless  it  was,  could 
I  eventually  redeem  the  real  dia 
monds,  and  once  more  feel  honest 
207 


THE  CASTLECOUKT 

and  respectable?  If  I  suddenly  ap 
peared  with  them,  how  could  I  ex 
plain  it?  Everybody  would  say  I 
had  stolen  them,  unless  I  invented 
some  story  about  their  being  lost 
and  then  found,  and  I  am  not  clever 
at  inventing  stories.  As  to  where  I 
should  get  the  money  to  redeem 
them,  I  often  thought  of  that;  but 
never  could  think  of  any  way  that 
sounded  possible  and  reasonable.  I 
have  always  waited  for  "  things  to 
turn  up,"  and  they  generally  did; 
but  in  this  case  nothing  that  I  want 
ed  or  expected  turned  up.  Besides, 
four  thousand  pounds  is  a  good  deal 
of  money  to  come  into  one's  hands 
suddenly  and  unexpectedly.  If  it 
were  a  smaller  sum  it  might,  but 
four  thousand  pounds  was  too  much. 
There  was  nobody  to  die  and  leave 
208 


DIAMOND  CASE 

it  to  me,  and  I  certainly  could  not 
steal  it,  or  make  it  myself. 

So,  as  one  may  see,  I  was  beset 
with  troubles  on  all  sides.  The  sea 
son  wore  itself  away,  and  I  was  glad 
to  be  done  with  it.  For  the  first 
time,  there  had  been  no  pleasure  in 
it.  Anxieties  that  no  one  guessed 
were  always  with  me,  and  always  I 
found  myself  surreptitiously  watch 
ing  my  husband  to  see  if  he  suspect 
ed,  to  see  if  he  showed  any  symp 
toms  of  growing  cold  to  me  and  be 
ing  indifferent.  As  I  drove  through 
the  Park  in  the  carriage  these  dreary 
thoughts  were  always  at  my  heart, 
and  it  was  heavy  as  lead.  I  forgot 
the  passers-by  who  were  so  amusing, 
and,  with  my  head  hanging,  looked 
into  my  lap.  Suppose  Herbert 
guessed?  Suppose  Herbert  found 
209 


THE  CASTLBCOURT 

out?  These  were  the  questions  that 
went  circling  through  my  brain  and 
never  stopped.  Sometimes,  when 
Herbert  was  beside  me,  I  suddenly 
wanted  to  cry  out: 

" Herbert,  /  took  the  diamonds! 
I  was  the  thief!  I  can't  hide  it  any 
more,  or  live  in  this  uncertainty. 
All  I  want  to  know  is,  do  you  hate 
me  and  are  you  going  to  leave  me?" 

But  I  never  did  it.  I  looked  at 
Herbert,  and  was  afraid.  What 
would  I  do  if  he  left  me?  Go  back 
to  Ireland  and  die. 

We  went  to  Castlecourt  Marsh 
Manor  in  the  end  of  June.  By  this 
time  I  had  begun  to  feel  quite  ill. 
Herbert  insisted  on  my  consulting  a 
doctor  before  I  left  town,  and  the 
doctor  said  my  heart  was  all  wrong 
and  something  was  the  matter  with 
210 


DIAMOND  CASE 

my  nerves.  But  it  was  only  the 
sense  of  guilt,  that  every  day  grew 
more  oppressive.  I  thought  I  might 
feel  better  in  the  country.  I  had 
always  disliked  it,  and  now  it  seemed 
like  a  harbor  of  refuge,  where  I 
could  be  quiet  with  my  chilrden.  I 
had  grown  to  hate  London.  It  was 
London  that  had  played  upon  my 
weaknesses  and  drawn  me  into  all 
my  trouble.  I  had  not  run  into  debt 
in  the  country,  and,  after  all,  I  had 
never  been  as  happy  as  I  was  the 
two  years  after  our  marriage,  when 
we  had  lived  at  Castlecourt  Marsh 
Manor.  Those  were  my  'beaux  jours! 
How  bright  and  beautiful  they 
seemed  now,  when  I  looked  back  on 
them  from  these  dark  days  of  fear 
and  disgrace! 

It   was   not   much   better   in   the 
211 


THE  CASTLECOUKT 

country.  A  change  of  scene  can  not 
make  a  difference  when  the  trouble 
is  a  dark  secret.  And  that  dark  se 
cret  kept  growing  darker  every  day. 
I  feared  to  speak  of  the  diamonds  to 
Herbert,  and  yet  every  letter  that 
came  for  him  filled  me  with  alarm, 
lest  it  was  either  to  say  that  they 
were  found  or  that  they  were  not 
found.  Herbert  went  up  to  London 
at  intervals  and  saw  Mr.  Gilsey,  and 
at  night  when  he  came  home  I  trem 
bled  so  that  I  found  it  difficult  to 
stand  till  he  had  told  me  all  that  Mr. 
Gilsey  had  said.  Once  when  he  was 
beginning  to  tell  me  that  Mr.  Gilsey 
had  some  idea  they  had  traced  the 
diamonds  to  Paris  I  fainted,  and  it 
was  some  time  before  they  could 
bring  me  back. 

July  was  very  hot,   and   I   gave 
212 


DIAMOND  CASE 

that  as  the  cause  of  my  changed  ap 
pearance  and  listless  manner.  I  was 
really  in  wretched  health,  and  Her 
bert  became  exceedingly  worried 
about  me.  He  suggested  that  we 
should  go  on  the  Continent  for  a 
trip,  but  I  shrank  from  the  thought 
of  it.  I  felt  as  if  the  sight  of  Paris, 
where  the  diamonds  were  waiting  to 
be  redeemed,  would  kill  me  outright. 
I  did  not  want  to  leave  Castlecourt 
Marsh  Manor  to  go  anywhere.  I 
only  wanted  to  be  happy  again — to 
be  the  way  I  was  before  I  had  taken 
the  diamonds. 

And  I  knew  now  that  this  could 
never  be  till  I  told  my  husband.  I 
knew  that  to  win  back  my  peace  of 
mind  I  had  to  confess  all,  and  hear 
him  say  he  forgave  me.  I  tried  to 
several  times,  but  it  was  impossible. 
213 


THE  CASTLECOTTRT 

As  the  moment  that  I  had  chosen  for 
confession  approached,  my  heart  beat 
so  that  I  could  scarcely  breathe,  and 
I  trembled  like  a  person  in  a  chill. 
With  Herbert  looking  at  me  so  kind 
ly,  so  tenderly,  the  words  died  away 
on  my  lips,  or  I  said  something  quite 
different  to  what  I  had  intended  say 
ing.  It  was  useless.  As  the  days 
went  by  I  knew  that  I  would  never 
dare  tell,  that  for  the  rest  of  my 
life  I  would  be  crushed  under  the 
sense  of  guilt  that  seemed  too  heavy 
to  be  borne. 

It  was  late  one  afternoon  in  the 
middle  of  July  that  the  crash  came. 
Never,  never  shall  I  forget  that  day ! 
So  dark  and  awful  at  first,  and 
then —  But  I  must  follow  the  story 
just  as  it  happened. 

Herbert  and  I  had  had  tea  in  the 
214 


DIAMOND  CASE 

library.  It  was  warm  weather,  and 
the  windows  that  led  to  the  terrace 
were  wide  open.  Through  them  I 
could  see  the  beautiful  landscape — 
rolling  hills  with  great  trees  dotted 
over  them,  all  the  colors  brighter  and 
deeper  than  at  midday,  for  the  sun 
was  getting  low.  I  was  sitting  by 
one  of  the  windows  looking  out  on 
this,  and  thinking  how  different  had 
been  my  feelings  when  I  had  come 
here  as  a  bride  and  loved  it  all,  and 
been  so  full  of  joy.  My  hands  hung 
limp  over  the  arms  of  the  chair.  I 
had  no  desire  to  move  or  speak.  It 
is  so  agonizing,  when  you  are  miser 
able,  looking  back  on  days  that  were 
happy! 

As  I  was  sitting  this  way,  Thomas, 
one  of  the  footmen,  came  in  with  the 
letters.    I  noticed  that  he  had  quite 
215 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

a  packet  of  them.  Some  were  mine, 
and  I  laid  them  on  the  table  at  my 
elbow.  Idly  and  without  interest  I 
saw  that  in  Herbert's  bunch  there 
was  a  small  box,  such  as  jewelery  is 
sent  about  in.  Thomas  left  the  room, 
and  I  continued  looking  out  of  the 
window  until  I  suddenly  heard  Her 
bert  give  a  suppressed  exclamation. 
I  turned  toward  him,  and  saw  that 
he  had  the  open  box  in  his  hand. 

"What  does  this  mean?"  he  said. 
"What  an  extraordinary  thing! 
Look  here,  Gladys." 

And  he  came  toward  me,  holding 
out  the  box.  It  was  full  of  cotton 
wool,  and  lying  on  this  were  a  great 
quantity  of  unset  diamonds  of  differ 
ent  sizes.  My  heart  gave  a  leap  into 
my  throat.  I  sat  up,  clutching  the 
arms  of  the  chair. 

216 


DIAMOND  CASE 

"What  are  they?"  I  said,  hearing 
my  voice  suddenly  high  and  loud. 
"Where  did  they  come  from?" 

"I  don't  know  anything  about 
them!  It's  too  odd!  See  what's 
written  on  this  piece  of  paper  that 
was  inside  the  box." 

He  held  out  a  small  piece  of  paper, 
on  which  the  creases  of  several  folds 
were  plainly  marked.  Across  it,  in 
typing,  ran  two  sentences.  I  snatch 
ed  the  paper  and  read  the  words: 

We  don't  want  your  diamonds.  You  can 
keep  them,  and  with  them  accept  our  kind 
regards. 

The  paper  fluttered  to  my  feet. 
I  knew  in  a  moment  what  it  all 
meant.  The  thieves  had  discovered 
that  the  diamonds  were  paste,  and 
had  returned  them.  I  was  conscious 
217 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

of  Herbert's  startled  face  suddenly 
charged  with  an  expression  of  sharp 
anxiety  as  he  cried: 

"  Why,  Gladys,  what  is  it  ?  You're 
as  white  as  death!" 

He  came  toward  me,  but  I  mo 
tioned  him  away  and  rose  to  my 
feet.  I  knew  then  that  the  hour  had 
come,  and  tho  I  suspect  I  was  very 
white,  I  did  not  feel  so  frightened 
as  I  had  done  in  the  past. 

"  Those  are  your  diamonds,  Her 
bert,"  I  said,  quietly  and  distinctly, 
"or,  perhaps,  I  ought  to  say  those 
are  the  substitutes  for  them.  Your 
diamonds  are  in  Paris,  at  Barriere's, 
au  quatreme,  on  the  Rue  Croix  des 
Petits  Champs." 

"Gladys!"  he  exclaimed,  "what 
do  you  mean?  What  are  you  talk 
ing  about?  You  look  so  white  and 
218 


DIAMOND  CASE 

strange !  Sit  down,  darling,  and  tell 
me  what  you  mean." 

"Oh,  Herbert,"  I  cried,  with  my 
voice  suddenly  full  of  agony,  "let 
me  tell  you!  Don't  stop  me.  If 
you're  angry  with  me  and  hate  me, 
wait  till  I've  finished  before  you  say 
so.  I've  got  to  confess  it  all.  I've 
got  to,  dear.  You  must  listen  to  me, 
and  not  frighten  me  till  I  have  done ; 
for  if  I  don't  tell  you  now,  I  shall 
certainly  die." 

And  then  I  told— I  told  it  all.  I 
didn't  leave  out  a  single  thing.  My 
first  bills,  and  Bolkonsky,  and  the 
jeweler,  and  the  pawnbroking  place, 
and  everything  was  in  it.  Once  I 
was  started,  it  was  not  so  hard,  and 
I  poured  it  out.  I  didn't  try  to 
make  it  better,  or  ask  to  be  forgiven. 
219 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

But  when  it  was  all  finished,  I  said, 
in  a  voice  that  I  could  hear  was 
suddenly  husky  and  trembling: 

"And  now  I  suppose  you  11  not 
like  me  any  more.  It's  quite  natural 
that  you  shouldn't.  I  only  ask  one 
thing,  and  I  know,  of  course,  I  have 
no  right  to  ask  it — that  is,  that  you 
won't  send  me  away  from  you.  I 
have  been  very  wicked.  I  suppose 
I  ought  to  be  put  in  prison.  But, 
oh,  Herbert,  no  matter  what  I've 
been,  I've  loved  you!  That's  some 
thing." 

I  could  not  go  any  further,  and 
there  was  no  need ;  for  my  dear  hus 
band  did  not  seem  angry  at  all.  He 
took  me,  all  weeping  and  trembling, 
into  his  arms,  and  said  the  sweetest 
things  to  me — the  sort  of  things 
220 


DIAMOND  CASE 

one  doesn't  write  down  with  a  pen — 
just  between  him  and  me. 

And  I? — I  turned  my  face  into 
his  shoulder  and  cried  feebly.  No 
one  knows  how  happy  I  felt  except 
a  person  who  has  been  completely 
miserable  and  suddenly  finds  her 
misery  ended.  It  is  really  worth  be 
ing  miserable  to  thoroughly  appre 
ciate  the  joy  of  being  happy  again. 

Well,  that  is  really  the  end  of  the 
statement.  Herbert  went  to  Paris 
a  few  days  later  and  redeemed  the 
diamonds,  and  they  are  now  being 
set  in  imitation  of  the  old  settings, 
which  are  lost.  I  would  not  go  to 
Paris  with  him.  Nor  will  I  go  to 
London  next  season.  Both  places 
are  too  full  of  horrible  memories. 
Perhaps  some  day  I  shall  feel  about 
221 


THE  CASTLECOURT 

them  as  I  did  before  the  diamonds 
were  taken,  but  now  I  do  not  want 
to  leave  the  country  at  all.  Besides, 
we  can  economize  here,  and  the  four 
thousand  pounds  necessary  to  get 
back  the  stones  was  a  good  deal 
for  Herbert  to  have  to  pay  out 
just  now.  And  then  it  is  so  sweet 
and  peaceful  in  the  country.  Noth 
ing  troubles  one.  Oh,  how  delightful 
a  thing  it  is  to  have  an  easy  con 
science!  One  does  not  know  how 
good  it  is  till  one  has  lost  it. 

This  finishes  my  statement.  I 
dare  say  it  is  a  very  bad  one,  for  I 
am  not  clever  at  all.  But  it  has  the 
one  merit  of  being  entirely  truthful, 
and  I  have  told  everything — just 
how  wicked  I  was,  and  just  why  I 
was  so  wicked.  Nothing  has  been 
222 


DIAMOND  CASE 

held  back,  and  nothing  has  been  set 
down  falsely.  It  is  an  unprejudiced 
and  accurate  account  of  my  share 
in  the  Castlecourt  diamond  case. 


223 


IB  322C8 


Renewals  and  red1     9 r-rr^^TScinW 


v-,p  tTiuu^  —  — 

" 


IB  322C8 


M13741 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


